“Thank you for great care that you are provided to me. I really appreciated.”

“Five stars thank you.”

“Everything is 10/10 , thank you so much for everything:)”

“I am very happy and thank you very much.”

“I had an amazing experience at [location name] Hospital with both my planned c-sections for both babies. Couldn’t fault anything!”

“I have anything else to say, but I must say, I’m happy to experience every thing during my pregnancy and labour.”

“I was very happy with the service I receive from all the NHS staff.”

“I had a great pregnancy and birth experience with the midwives. Thank you to all of the midwives who involved me and my baby’s care.”

“I would like to thank the entire health care team and the NHS.”

“Each of those ladies is an absolute angel. They helped my baby to breathe in his most vulnerable first moments. I could cry when I think of what they’ve done for our family! Thank you will never be enough!”

“My experience at [location name] was magical and I will remember every single midwife involved in our care, they clearly have passion and love their job and I would feel very comfortable being treated by the same team in the future. Thank-you everyone.”

“I appreciated the care given by the [location name] team.”

“The care i received during birth and antenatal was absolutely outstanding. each person treated you with such compassion , i would have expected the same treatment if paying privately.”

“Antenatal care (at triage) was good, always seen and looked after.”

“Antenatal care – Overall recieved good care from all midwives I met, however it was a mix of different midwives every time.”

“I was under [location name] for my care initially, antenatal appointments were brilliant, I cannot put into words how amazing they were. I cant thank them enough.”

“The level of care was outstanding. Three individuals that stood out for me on [location name] were [Name], [Name] and [Name]. [Name] treated me when I first arrived and was kind and patient even though she was busy. [Name] was a trainee but she must have had more experience or worked in midwifery before as her bedside manner was impeccable… I’m so grateful.”

“I was really happy with choosing this hospital again. Everything was perfect. Great and so kind staff, doctors, midwives, nurses, all were helpful and super caring. I wouldn’t change anything. Thank you for bringing my son to the world in such a great atmosphere.”

“I cannot fault the care I received at [location name], especially during labour + birth. All midwives I dealt with were amazing + very supportive [name, name, name + name]. I can’t thank them enough for making what was a nervous first time experience into a safe and calm one.”

“I wish my partner could have stayed overnight during my induction as it was quite frightening when my waters broke but the midwives were fantastic and called my partner back in when I wasn’t in a position to.”

“I must highlight that the care I received by the midwives at [location name] Hospital was outstanding. The 2 midwives assigned to me communicated with me throughout, were very knowledgeable and helped me to remain calm during a fast active labour. They worked intuitively with my circumstances and followed my lead during the birth. I have praised them to everyone I have spoken to about my birth.”

“Our baby had to go to NICU when he was 8 hours old and I was so upset. The midwife I had was brilliant at helping me get up for the first time and brought down to NICU. The nurse we had in NICU was amazing.”

“We are eternally grateful for helping us so well during pregnancy and labour and delivery and especially for the fantastic support we received in NICU. Thank you to the wonderful NICU psychologist, nurses, midwives, doctors, feeding consultant, and all the people in the background who make the hospital run around and offer such incredible support to people when they really need it.”

“[Name] was a trainee but she must have had more experience or worked in midwifery before as her bedside manner was impeccable. When I found out my son had to go to SCBU, she fed him and comforted me. All these women stood out to me as exceptional. [Name] was fantastic and the other doctors ([Name], [Name]. [Name], Name), [Name]) provided amazing care. In SCBU, the nurses who took care of my son were phenomenal (Name], [Name]. [Name], Name), [Name], [Name]). These ladies made a hugely positive impact on me and taught me so much about feeding. I’m so grateful.”

“We are so lucky. In particular, I owe everything to the incredible ladies in SCBU [location name] for looking after my baby boy [Name] in the first week of his life.”

“I had such a positive pregnancy, labour and birth thanks to the [location name] team of midwives. [name] in particular was incredibly supportive.”

“My (antenatal) midwife was very approachable and I felt comfortable discussing my wishes with her.”

“I was looked after by [name] as my community midwife and [name] who delivered my baby. Could not speak highly enough about them both. Amazing midwives. All the nhs staff who worked with me they were kind, considerate, informative and really helped me as further complications arose towards the end of my pregnancy.”

“My experience at [location name] was magical and I will remember every single midwife involved in our care, they clearly have passion and love their job and I would feel very comfortable being treated by the same team in the future.”

“I’m so grateful for the care I received while I was hospitalised for 5 days from midwives and doctors who did my cesarean. All your dedication to my health has been truly inspiring, and I always feel like I was in good hands with you all.”

“I had a short and straight forward labour, but I must highlight that the care I received by the midwives at [location name] Hospital was outstanding. The 2 midwives assigned to me communicated with me throughout, were very knowledgeable and helped me to remain calm during a fast active labour. They worked intuitively with my circumstances and followed my lead during the birth. I have praised them to everyone I have spoken to about my birth.”

“My midwife (community) [name] was amazing, very supportive & caring. The team in the antenatal assessment unit were patient & couldn’t do enough for us. My C-section team midwife [name], anesthetist [name] & surgeon [name] were incredible, very professional, caring, made me feel at ease & comfortable. I couldn’t have asked for a better team.”

“I felt extremely supported during my whole pregnancy by my midwife. My birthing team were beyond helpful and kind. I felt so at ease and supported. I had an experienced midwife and a training midwife team (x2 as it was shift change time) they were very professional, very kind and made the whole experience seamless and as relaxing as birth can be. I honestly couldn’t praise them enough.”

“While I was in labour the student midwife I had called [name] was amazing, she did everything in her power to make sure I was comfortable & knew what was happening.”

“During my inductions all of the midwives were kind and compassionate and the team who carried out my c section were also very kind and made me feel safe during and after the procedure.”

“The midwives after the birth looked after me and my baby so well. I can’t thank them enough, they gave me confidence in my mothering skills, helped with breastfeeding and supported me with pain so that I could concentrate on learning to be a mother.”

“At one point in the postnatal ward, I felt really upset by a staff member’s behaviour. I felt that she was being rude and didn’t consider how I was feeling. As a patient, she could have treated me with more kindness.”

“One negative experience at hospital clinic where the doctor was rude, unhelpful and extremely abrupt. Made a complaint about this and did not see him again however remain worried about this doctor, who was a locum, seeing other families as his attitude was appalling.”

“The lady that came in to tell us we was being transferred to the ward was very abrupt and stand off!”

“I had to ask a care assistant to help me put my baby in the cot and she was very rude to me and told me my partner couldn’t be here he need to leave now… She was not supportive, aggressive in her tone, patronising and unhelpful. She made me feel extremely anxious and like I was failing!”

“There was a head midwife in which didn’t seem to listen to my partner over a concern we had, when I wasn’t able to speak. She seemed very rude towards him.”

“As it was my first child I had relied on the midwives to help me, most (not all) were cold, and not interested in taking care nor listening to me.”

“I had midwives have a go at me whilst I was in active labour and in a lot of pain.”

“I was treated awfully by one doctor in particular and was in a lot of pain and all she seemed to care for was the health of my baby. I was made to feel like I did not matter.”

“During pregnancy I did speak to a diabetic nurse called [name] based at [location name] hospital. I found her to be quite condescending, and even laughed when I asked questions.”

“Spent 3 days in hospital waiting for induction after my waters broke to start contractions however due to lack of staff I was unable to go to the delivery suite for this to happen. I then ended up classed as an emergency c section which took 3 days before being able to have this done. Midwife’s and delivery team amazing but lack of staff is disgusting.”

“The midwife who first came to visit us, came a day later due to the service being overstretched. There was also no advance warning and she just showed up.”

“The planned home birth didn’t go ahead due team unavailable once on established labour. The Trust still not providing enough staff for the home birth service.”

“There’s only 1 women that does tongue ties in [location name] and she was on holiday so I was unable rectify it for 2 weeks. The procedure is quick, why can’t these be done in the ward on the day or within a few days of birth to avoid the stress I endured later down the line? More people should be trained to do it.”

“The only negative I have is waiting for a hospital bed due to lack of staff and not being assessed regularly during labor again due to staff shortages but over all the midwives did all they could to ensure I was comfortable and did a fantastic job with such staff shortages, they were absolutely fantastic!”

“The midwives were rushed off their feet and with no doctors to carry out assessments it was just mayhem. It felt like the hospital was being let down by the fact that the doctors were spread so thin across multiple departments and heavily pregnant and worried women in triage were just left to sit on uncomfortable chairs for an unknown period of time.”

“It is clear to see that women are not able to be adequately cared for in a system which is so stretched. Pregnancy needs to be respected as a big event in a woman’s life, continuity of care is essential but lacking.”

“The department was exceptionally short of beds during 1st week of Feb so this made my inpatient induction more drawn out due to lack of doctors to examine me and emergencies understandably taking priority.”

“I felt that despite challenging circumstances, they were all trying to do their very best and keep to professional standards. However, it was clear a lack of resources meant it was difficult for staff to do their jobs properly.”

“Some midwifery staff/nurses were absolutely fantastic however some were extremely rude and very dismissive of pain and I kept getting comments about how they’re short staff.”

“You could tell the hospital was short staffed on the wards but all the midwives and team did all they could.”

“The shortage of staff in triage at the time was concerning the midwife or health assistance I saw was rushing because she was on her own. This is how mistakes happen.”

“During my labour, a midwife called [Name], wasn’t very sympathetic when I expressed my concerns of being in labour. I had to ask several times to have a bit of privacy as I felt I was in labour. Finally she gave me a side room but I was told there was absolutely no reason for me to be in that room.”

“Facilities at [location name] for post natal not fit for purpose, small bays and lack of privacy in shared bays.”

“I work for the NHS so I am acutely aware of the national pressures on bedspaces, however the lack of space and privacy truly did impact the dignity of myself and other new parents.”

“felt genuinely cared for throughout my time on the maternity ward. The staff were respectful, attentive, and ensured my privacy and dignity were maintained at all times. I appreciate the way sensitive information was handled with professionalism and discretion. It gave me confidence that both my personal and medical details were treated with the highest level of confidentiality.”

“I had multiple visits to the maternity unit after birth as I has pain and discomfort and raised blood pressure. My last time there was were there (plus my husband and baby) for 6 hours with no one helping until my white husband complained, saying we can see why black women have such awful outcomes through pregnancy and birth and said he was taking us home despite no help. That incident led to a scan being requested which identified a large haematoma for which I was not given any pain medication or assistance.”

“All of the staff were very friendly and helping except one midwife or healthcare that was on night duty. She was being racist and not looking on us, didn’t provide us any information on feeding. It was our first nights with the baby, my husband stayed on a very sturdy chair whole night, although I could see other parents and babies were getting more care and attention when we were left out there.”

“I have myself been mistreated and while waiting seen a huge number of patients being mistreated especially when english is not there first language. In average 3/5 midwives on shift displayed these behaviours, this is based on numerous visits not just one. You also have an elderly Caucasian gynacologist displaying racist characteristics. I was unable to get her name, however she treated me this last time of using triage, reviewed my reason for being at triage and did not even allow me to talk or tell her why I was there and in her 2nd sentence said it’s anxiety it’s your 1st baby. I said to her about 3 words before she cut me off talking and told me it was anxiety. I am a professional myself working in the medical field and never spoken to my patients in this manner, she did not even ask why I was there. Same thing for the next patient!”

“I feel like Asian people are looked after and treated differently by certain staff.”

“During pushing i said to one of the midwifes i could not push anymore and my baby’s heartrate was dropping, she said things such as ‘its called labour for a reason’ ‘you need to push because her heartrate is dropping’ Making me feel like i was failing my baby and she did not take me seriously, presumably because i am young. I demanded a c-section which they didnt want to do at first but eventually a doctor came in and checked me, i have a curve in my spine which must have led to a lack of curve in my pelvis, my baby was stuck like i said. My epidural failed so i was in agony, i was screaming not being able to do anything about it as i couldnt push, i was taken in for a cat.1 c-section but they ended up using forceps instead as my baby was low enough. I could have lost my baby due to not being taken seriously at my most vulnerable.”

“I felt and believe that the [location name] maternity hospital staff where neglectful in a sense due to I only saw them maybe twice every 13 hours the only staff member I actually thought was amazing and was good at her job and that wasn’t rude was a student midwife named [name]. A male doctor examined me vaginally which I stated at the beginning of me going into hospital that as I was a 17 year old female I didn’t want a male doctor to examine me. I was spoken to with judgment and rudely which I believe was due to my age. I had asked for pain relief multiple times and was forgotten about every time. They took over 12 hours to put me on the hormone drip which at that point I had been in labour for at least 48 hours. My baby had a permanent scar on his forehead from where one of the nurses had roughly without care nor trying to be gentle had tried but failed to break my forewaters. My overall care was not up to a standard that it should have been.”

“No one was listening to me or taking me serious because they didn’t believe I was in labour like I did.”

“Follow up visits at home we had 2 negative experiences. Firstly a midwife support worker assumed my partner (female) was baby’s grandma. This is offensive to my partner and showed that she had not had even a cursory look at the notes before entering my home. She did not introduce herself and just said “is it through here”, which was very rude again as new parents care could have been much better. Another midwife also made the same assumption. Please look at the notes.”

“My debilitating nausea during pregnancy was not taken seriously by my GP, and was refused medication other than one that I already knew didn’t work. I was told any other medication would be too risky for my pregnancy, but I know that many other women are given help via medication.”

“During my antenatal care, I had to be persistent with my midwife to get her to do swab tests to investigate my concerns. I sometimes felt like this was an administrative burden to her at my appointments.”

“Every time l went to my scans it felt like they were always negative about my baby’s growth and l tried to explain it so many times that l carry small babies, but they wouldn’t listen.”

“Diagnosed with pre-eclampsia after raising numerous concerns. Returned to the hospital to then be told by a different doctor he didn’t agree with this diagnosis and it wasn’t pre-eclampsia. I returned for daily monitoring the following day to be told again it was pre-eclampsia, medication was required.”

“I feel I was not taken seriously when calling triage in early labour, most likely due to being first pregnancy, which led to an emergency home birth.”

“When I went to hospital in labour, I didn’t feel they believed me with ‘how much’ labour I was in. They wrote on the screen not in active labour before examining me and when they (eventually) examined me, I was 5 cm and hadn’t had any pain relief. (they then believed me and gave me pain relief).”

“Dismissed our concerns about baby jaundice and then looked at her again 10mins later and told us to go straight to a+e (we did, and she was jaundiced)!”

“My son had a tongue tie which wasn’t picked up on until his day 5 check. I thought he had during our stay in hospital but only one member of staff in the ward could diagnose it and because I was desperate to leave the hospital the day we got discharged I didn’t have time to get it checked.”

“My only gripe would be that my baby wasn’t picked up for having a tongue tie – this was noticed on day 3 after feeding problems. By that point, my baby had lost weight and blood sugars were low, so we ended up bottle feeding. I think this should be checked in hospital and follow up care given. I feel this greatly contributed to me not being able to successfully breast feed.”

“My wish to not have cord clamped even after ‘2mins’ was not communicated to theatre team during my emergency C-section, I forgot to mention it and the theatre team never asked, it should be included in the surgical checklist in theatre before starting procedure.”

“I also asked for delayed cord clamping and was only clamped for 1 minute.”

“The home birth midwife team were absolutely outstanding and made it a special and empowering experience. I felt completely trusted and respected to make safe informed decisions. I am very grateful for the quality of care I received.”

“The care we received at [location name] was exceptional… We felt safe, heard and respected.”

“My community midwife was amazing throughout and listened to my concerns and made me feel heard. The labour midwives who were on shift whilst I gave birth were just as amazing, they listened to my wishes of a water birth and followed through with this immediately. They respected my space and offered support when needed.”

“Huge thank you to the [location name] team. Their care, work ethic and consideration for my birth choices enabled me to have a very positive birth experience. We chose a ‘hands off’ approach, where I birthed my daughter myself in the pool at home.”

“I was a surrogate and gave birth to a little X on [date], after a planned induction. The care we received from start to finish was faultless. I was always treated as the pregnant person and my friends were always treated as the parents, as I requested. Our midwife care was fantastic throughout the pregnancy. The birth experience was amazing and the [location name] were incredibly accommodating of the extra people in the room. The midwives even thanked us for letting them be part of it. Post birth, baby had to be observed for 12hrs. They took parents and baby up to the ward and I was discharged straight from the delivery room. This allowed me to get home to rest and them to be respected as his parents from the very beginning. Thank you to everyone involved.”

“I saw 17 different midwives in the 40 hours I was in hospital across the assessment unit, induction ward, labour ward and postnatal care. 13 of those were during my labour which was only 2 hours long and this was very unsettling in an already difficult time.”

“My midwifery team was very good but I did request to see the same midwife and I did not get a lot of appointments with her and even booked my appointments with her to ensure I seen my named midwife but on the day find out she was not there for unknown reasons.”

“During this recent pregnancy I never saw the same midwife more than once and this was difficult because I felt like I was having to repeat myself all of the time.”

“All of the midwives I came across (antenatal, triage, delivery, postnatal) were very helpful and friendly I would have preferred the same midwife throughout antenatal and postnatal care.”

“I was seen by many different people during my antenatal and postnatal check-ups. My assigned midwife didn’t see me once postnatally and antenatally always seemed to be on leave.”

“My husband who saw how much I suffered to he made midwives to take me to labour ward and only then they checked on the baby and realized I won’t be about to deliver the baby without getting specialist help. All im saying all suffering I went through could be avoided if I would be taken care of as I should and if I would have one midwife not 10 of them.”

“I was also lucky enough to have a pleasant pregnancy without any issues and each antenatal appointment was informative. However, I did not see the same midwife throughout my pregnancy, it didn’t bother me, although there wasn’t any consistency in the information and results being published in badger notes.”

“While I appreciate the effort of all staff and the quality of care provided, I’d have loved to have at least 2 or 3 antenatal sessions with the same midwife. Going every day and seeing different faces makes me not (at most of the times) have that freedom to express myself to the fullest, in terms of how I was feeling, which I would say made me keep lot of things to myself and figured them out myself.”

“I have had 2 babies with the trust now, the first a hospital unassisted vaginal and the second a home water birth. Both times the staff have been amazing and I’ve had really great experiences. However the second time I had continuity of care with the same midwife and that made such a difference! When she called to say she was in her way when I went into labour at home, I felt so relived and at ease.”

“My midwife [name] at [location name] centre was amazing throughout my pregnancy, I’m very grateful I was able to see the same midwife throughout my pregnancy, she gave my all the information I needed, I was never left with any questions, she was kind and really put me at ease.”

“At first the scan and consultant team didn’t know my history, I had to tell them. But once they knew it was a fairly good continued conversation and care. I barely saw the same consultant twice but they were all good.”

“i would have liked to have seen the same medical professionals for appointments instead of someone different every time. but i can understand the service is very busy and that isn’t always practical.”

“During pregnancy, I was under consultant-led care with weekly scans nearing the end due to issues with slow growth, but saw a different consultant each time, all with slightly different views on way forward. This lack of consistency was stressful.”

“I generally had a great experience but I found as I was under consultant led care the midwife appointments became pointless and I was passed around the consultants.”

“The care from the paediatricians following birth was difficult as each change of shift brought a different perspective and treatment plan so there was no consistency and jaundice was missed.”

“Not sure if this applies to maternity care, as this was prior to speaking to a midwife. But at around 5 weeks pregnant I started bleeding, 111 sent me to A&E which I was then sent to SDEC gynaecology, I was examined by a male doctor who told me I had miscarried, told me to retest in 3 weeks to ensure the test comes back negative. I was obviously very upset about this as I was sent home to just deal with a miscarriage, 2 hours after I got home the same doctor phoned me to tell me to come in the following day for a scan, it turned out I did not miscarry and was in fact still pregnant. I feel as though he should not be giving out a diagnosis unless 100% sure as this could have been very traumatic for someone else if they weren’t coping well in the first place.”

“I had all pre-eclampsia symptoms except protein in the urine, so it was missed. My BP was measured against typical ranges rather than at the baseline from my booking appointment, so my hypertension was missed. I was not given advice about postnatal impacts of pre-eclampsia.”

“Diagnosed with pre-eclampsia after raising numerous concerns. Returned to the hospital to then be told by a different doctor he didn’t agree with this diagnosis and it wasn’t pre-eclampsia. I returned for daily monitoring the following day to be told again it was pre-eclampsia, medication was required.”

“Pre-eclampsia was not picked up during my pregnancy until I was 38 weeks, even though I had high blood pressure throughout that was always dismissed as white coat syndrome.”

“The junior surgeon who sliced through a large fibroid causing me to haemorrhage X.X litres of blood should not be able to operate until she has obtained further training. If it was not for the swift actions of the consultant, my baby and I could be dead.”

“I had emergency surgery X days post-portum due to retained placenta I contacted the hospital where I delivered to let them know of this oversight which caused significant emotional & physical distress but have not heard back.”

“I had to be readmitted for another three days due to infection and hematoma that was visible on my abdomen and missed by all doctors and midwives who checked my scar.”

“I had retained placenta in place for X weeks and had multiple infections during this time (one requiring hospitalisation for IV antibiotics), but did not receive an ultrasound until I insisted because I had passed a piece of placenta at X weeks and X days after the birth.”

“I contracted a serious infection X days post delivery which resulted in a large hole opening up on my stomach (seperate to my c-section scar). This led to re-admission to HDU for X days.”

“During the delivery, forceps were used, resulting in significant blood loss (almost X.X liters) due to the cuts made. My hemoglobin levels dropped dramatically from X to X and I became extremely unwell. To make matters worse, it was later discovered that Xcm of pregnancy tissue was left inside me.”

“When I give birth I had to have a few stitches and they lost a needle for X hours, they almost had to send me for a x-ray.”

“In labour my epidural didn’t work. It took me getting up and walking before staff believed me.”

“Anestesiologist took X attempts to put a spinal in before another doctor stepped in and did it first time, each attempt caused me pain and distress at what was already a stressful time having a c section – also his communication skills were horrific.”

“The midwifes who came to put the epidural had no idea how to put it because they kept putting the needle in and out and my back still hurts.”

“Baby had sticky eyes, swab taken on day X check up, no results communicated with myself, I was told to continue cleaning them as probably blocked tear duct. Baby ended up in a&e with ?sepsis at X weeks old which was suspected spread if the infection from the eye. The swab came came positive for Moraxella. I feel this should have been actively raised as an abnormal result and communicated to me and feel there is a gap in follow up care becuase of this.”

“When I was getting discharged I mentioned baby not eating Xhrs after its first feed and was told “he just might not be hungry” Xhrs later I had to take baby to a+e because he still wasn’t eating n would throw up if I tried. He spent the next X days being treated with antibiotics on the children’s ward.”

“A couple of hours after I gave birth, I raised a concern about my baby looking yellow with the midwife, which she didn’t give me a satisfactory answer for and wasn’t acted upon until the night-shift midwife came on and she did her preliminary checks and confirmed that the neonatal doctors should have looked at my baby as he was quite yellow. Things moved fast after that and my baby had to be admitted in the Special Care Unit to receive phototherapy and antibiotics.”

“The [location name] midwifery team do not have the correct training when dealing with babies born with a cleft. Treating parents like they’re doing something wrong because they don’t have any idea of what they’re doing in this situation is very belittling. They need adequate training to suite all babies and families.”

“I feel that tongue ties should be sorted and cut before leaving the hospital as my appointment took 9 weeks. External referrals were unnecessary when such a quick procedure could have been done then and there.”

“There’s only 1 women that does tongue ties in [location name] and she was on holiday so I was unable rectify it for 2 weeks. The procedure is quick, why can’t these be done in the ward on the day or within a few days of birth to avoid the stress I endured later down the line? More people should be trained to do it.”

“My son had a tongue tie which wasn’t picked up on until his day 5 check. I thought he had during our stay in hospital but only one member of staff in the ward could diagnose it and because I was desperate to leave the hospital the day we got discharged I didn’t have time to get it checked.”

“My only gripe would be that my baby wasn’t picked up for having a tongue tie – this was noticed on day 3 after feeding problems. By that point, my baby had lost weight and blood sugars were low, so we ended up bottle feeding. I think this should be checked in hospital and follow up care given. I feel this greatly contributed to me not being able to successfully breast feed.”

“There was delay in seeing the lady who does the full assessment on baby which was done at home. Which caused delay in diagnosing my baby tongue tie.”

“My son also had a tongue tie which was 100% restricted and if this has been assessed sooner than day 3 this could have improved my breastfeeding journey. Also, the 6 week wait for tongue tie to be cut also impacted my breastfeeding journey.”

“It wasn’t till after several visits one midwife suggested a tounge tie. No one not even in the hospital had discussed tongue tie with us. We later decided to investigate and have this done privately.”

“After birth, my baby wouldn’t breastfeed. A pediatrician mentioned a ‘mild’ tongue tie before discharge. I was discharged 24 hours post C-section without established feeding, he had only taken 1ml via syringe in 24hrs. His referral was rejected for tongue tie so I paid privately to have the tongue tie assessed and treated at 8 days old. It was actually 80% tied-one of the worst they’d seen. They also noted severe jaundice during this private appt, which midwives who visited had said they thought seemed ok. I requested a blood test for bilirubin at the birth centre; he was admitted for treatment on Childrens ward as his levels were over treatment line.”

“Tongue tie stopped him from being able to latch… I booked to get it done privately.”

“His referral was rejected for tongue tie so I paid privately to have the tongue tie assessed and treated at 8 days old.”

“My baby attended [location name] to address a tongue tie at 4 weeks but it was not completely divided so had to take my baby through this again privately.”

“Midwife’s in hospital were very young and inexperienced. Care received from these midwife’s was worrying.”

“I had forceps delivery and episiotomy – the registrar who did this was amazing but he didn’t know the female anatomy as he said I needed an injection in my clitoris but it wasn’t. The consultant even said that he doesn’t know the female anatomy!”

“I had a student midwife throughout my antenatal and postnatal care. I do think this affected my experience because she was a bit forgetful, took a long time to do things, was terrible at taking my blood and she was the only midwife I saw after my baby was born. Although she was very kind, I did not fully trust that she always knew what she was talking about.”

“When I was getting sewn up after birth, the midwife [name] from [location name] was not professional. She didn’t numb me properly. I was told if it was too painful she would stop, she didn’t.”

“I had to really fight to be checked for progress I felt I wasn’t being listened to I have done this 3 times previously and I know my body. Once finally checked and allowed to move I had the baby within 15 mins. When I was in pushing stage midwife left student alone. She panicked when head came out, calling my partner to pull the emergency cord – was distressing after what happened earlier.”

“My labour and birth was overseen by a student midwife (which isn’t a problem, I believe everyone needs the opportunity to get hands on experience). She at one point left the room whilst I was contracting/pushing. My wife had to leave me to call for help as the baby’s heart rate monitor started beeping. After my birth she stitched me up following a cut and a tear, she took so long (which isn’t a problem as I’d rather it was done properly and with care) but towards the end the numbing had wore off… I was still using gas and air at this point, and it was only when another midwife came in to offer tea and toast, who seen my painful expression, then told the student to use more numbing…. her response was ‘I only have 3 left to do’. Overall my experience is good, I just feel the student work should have been checked or overseen by someone more senior… I developed 2 hemetomas the next day and I’m unsure whether these could have been recognised or diagnosed at the stitching stage.”

“My diabetes doctor didn’t know my medical/pregnancy history when in appointments made me feel like a number.”

“I found antenatal appointments with the doctor to be very superficial. There wasn’t enough attention to my long-term health condition and a lack of coordination between the antenatal team and the specialist looking after my condition. As a result, I had to be rushed to the hospital for an emergency IV and had to stay overnight in the corridor waiting to complete treatment even though I’ve flagged it to the team well in advance.”

“It would be great to improve communication between doctors/midwifes. My baby needed hepatitis B vaccination in the first 24 hours and this was not communicated properly and it was delayed as there was a lot of confusion between the Teams in hospital.”

“Bad communication from junior paediatric staff and ultimately we self discharged (we are doctors) after 4 days because of several delays and poor communication (and knowing our baby was not unwell).”

“I received care during my pregnancy and labour in [location], but once discharged I received care from the [location] health visitor service. If we had received post natal care from the [location] team I believe it would have been smoother and I would have seen by the same team.”

“She also input my ethnicity incorrectly resulting in an incorrect Down syndrome test result. Some of this incorrect information remained on my record through pregnancy resulting in my baby being offered tests he did not need.”

“My baby’s weight appears to have been incorrectly measured at birth. This caused knock on effects as by day 5 it appeared he had gained 5lbs. This resulted in concern around baby and kids of monitoring from midwives, making us feel overwhelmed.”

“During visits to the hospital, I was told they did not know how far I was during my pregnancy even though I had a 6 week and a 9 week scan. I was made to feel like I was going to be birthed early without a valid reason, other than the hospital losing record of my scans.”

“One of the nights, the night nurse wrote my sons information about the amount of milk that went in his feeding tube wrong so we were almost forced to stay another night even though my son was eating perfectly without throwing up.”

“The only poor experience I had was at my initial VBAC appointment – the appointment was one hour late (which was not an issue in itself I appreciate often these things are beyond anyone’s control) however my appointment still went ahead, it was rushed, impersonal and I did not feel I was fully listened to, or my thoughts, opinions and previous experiences were taken into consideration.”

“Throughout the pregnancy, had multiple last minute cancellations or changes to routine appointments from the same midwife. Not good for making me feel like my pregnancy was important.”

“Admin error meant c section & pre op were showing as booked on badgernotes, but when I attended, they had no record on their side. I appreciate things go wrong, and they organised a c section the next morning for me which was brilliant, but for approximately 2 hours, no one spoke to me to tell me this had occurred/ that they were trying to sort out a new date so think communication could have been better.”

“Delays with antenatal appointments should be identified and communicated on arrival. Some appointments were delayed by 1-2 hours.”

“A mistake was made about my due date and this meant that my appointments were booked for the wrong dates. It took a long time to get this cleared up, it caused me lots of issues as I was repeatedly told there were no appointments available.”

“I turned up for my booking appointment on a Saturday morning and the clinic was completely closed. I made an official complaint about this.”

“My midwifery team was very good but I did request to see the same midwife and I did not get a lot of appointments with her and even booked my appointments with her to ensure I seen my named midwife but on the day find out she was not there for unknown reasons, my named midwife also knew that I had this complaint.”

“When I was pregnant last time I seen a midwife was 30 weeks and 4 days pregnant and never seen a midwife after that till I was giving birth as I never got contact for anything.”

“I really struggled getting vaccines I needed in pregnancy. Apparently the midwives couldn’t do them at my appointments which meant additional appointments with nurses which were a pain. I imagine this would put a lot of people off.”

“I also felt I wasn’t given sufficient reasons for why they wanted my baby out by x time due to being IVF – genetics didn’t seem explanation enough.”

“Their rhetoric was fear-based in a bid to gain my consent for various interventions – this is not the definition of informed consent. When consultants use sentences such as ‘I absolutely will not let you birth this way’, and ‘the trauma of a birth that didn’t go as you expected is easier to get over than the trauma of a dead baby’.”

“I think conversations about c-sections were (understandably) very serious and outlined risks. We went through this process several times. However, I do think that this was (unfairly) not compared to vaginal birth, and the risks also associated therewith, particularly in relation to my condition (epilepsy).”

“I was lectured endlessly on gestational diabetes and threatened with statistics about still birth due to my age if I refused induction. The consultants were defensive and patronising in their discussions and had no time or interest in listening to my concerns or different strategies.”

“My experience of community midwife was also excellent. However, most of the antenatal doctors in both hospitals were extremely poor at communicating birth options, risks, and treating me with respect. When I asked questions to establish the evidence base for recommendations, I was treated like an emotional person who wasn’t capable of being rational. I was almost never provided with an evidence base for decisions. I was told by at least 3 doctors that if I didn’t go with their recommendation then my baby could die (exact words). No other risks were described, and no percentages of possible death could be provided. Phrases used by doctors included ‘we would not allow you to do that’, ‘that’s not allowed’ etc. which shows a very poor understanding of the rights of women during pregnancy and birth.”

“The only negative experiences I had during my maternity journey were with doctors at the hospital. One was during an antenatal phonecall where we were discussing induction and my gestational diabetes. I expressed that I didn’t want to be induced yet and that this was supported by the midwives and I understood the risks. The doctor in question said that if I didn’t induce, my baby could die, in those exact words. I found her very blunt, unsympathetic and felt she was overdramatising the risks involved with choosing not to induce in my particular circumstances.”

“No one told me why I needed a CAT 1 section.”

“Due to several emergencies, I wasn’t seen until much later than expected. Whilst this couldn’t be avoided, it triggered my anxiety and there was very little information given to us to when I would be having the baby.”

“I was sent to birth suite and prepared for a c-section without being told what was going to happen, why it was happening by the triage staff or the birth suite staff. I had to figure that out by myself with no support as I was there alone and no one was communicating with me.”

“When taken into the theatre for the planned C-section the anaesthetist team were great and talked me and my husband through each stage but after that there was no communication with me or my husband to say they were about to cut me open, about to birth our child, it was like I was on a factory conveyor belt. I also had tubal ligation and there was no confirmation during or after that this had actually been done and was successful.”

“Induction information was poor especially around the syntocin drip – feel this was terrible procedure and would never opt for this again.”

“The induction process was never fully explained both pre birth and even when I was admitted for an induction. Timescales need to be more explicitly explained, alongside more information about what happens or what to expect once induction has been initiated.”

“I was not informed fully about the induction process and that this would mean I would be stuck in bed unable to move.”

“I felt the induction process and risks could have been explained more fully.”

“The induction process should have been more clearly explained. I was given a leaflet but no one explained the process to me until the day of my induction.”

“I wish someone had explained in more detail the risks of induction, what to expect etc. the only reason why I got one was because the midwife mentioned risk of still born which scared me so I said yes to one but I wouldn’t have one again.”

“My waters broke and I did not go in to natural labour so was booked into the consultant ward for an induction. When I arrived I was taken to a private room and left alone with my partner for an hour. We were not given any information on arrival – plus reading posters about the added pain and risks of induction whilst waiting alone added to anxiety.”

“Thursday evening they had started the induction process and I was in the queue to move onto the labour ward and have my waters broken. This didn’t happen until Saturday night. In this time I had no updates and was left waiting whilst the midwives tried to help with the pain of the contractions. It was frustrating and upsetting.”

“Didn’t receive anywhere near enough info antenatally on feeding, particularly after c section so feeding was a disaster.”

“There were many things particularly with baby feeding and sleep that could have been explained better before leaving the hospital. I didn’t have the knowledge on breastfeeding and tongue tie which led to increased mental health issues.”

“During pregnancy i feel as though i didnt not recieve enough information on breast feeding. I wanted to breast feed but was not aware my milk would take time to come in.”

“In hospital, midwifes kept giving differing advice on things like feeding. Made to feel bad for having a hungry baby then made to feel bad for giving baby too much formula.”

“Breastfeeding frequency wasn’t explained properly at the hospital and there were conflicting advice from different midwives. One told us to feed every 3-4 hrs and not demand feed which wasn’t correct.”

“I felt as a first time mum I could’ve really benefited from 10 minutes with a midwife to show me how to feed, burp and change our baby.”

“As it was my first child I had relied on the midwives to help me, most (not all) were cold, and not interested in taking care nor listening to me.”

“One thing that surprised me as a first time mum was that I was allowed to leave the hospital with no real evidence that I could look after my twins. To ensure mums are equipped a demo of how to look after baby should be carried out before being allowed to leave the hospital.”

“We had no tips or anything on how to care for our new baby, being our first, we had no idea how to change a nappy or anything yet had no help from midwives or doctors.”

“It was not discussed about any ante natal or post natal classes e.g baby rhyme time, baby massage etc throughout my journey which was disappointing and I had to find this information out myself.”

“During childbirth i had a third degree tear and required surgery. The extent of my injury wasn’t fully explained neither was i told how to care for this at home or shown/told how to self inject with the Tinziparin. I went home where a GP later discovered i had MRSA in the surgery wound. Noone told me i would receive an appointment with Gynaecology and Physio which left me very confused when an appointment letter came through a month later. The staff on the post natal unit never checked on me as a patient or the baby, offered to help or provide the necessary information.”

“I also feel that more information should be provided regarding how to look after your c section wound as I was not given any advice before I went home. 10 weeks post c section I ended up in A&E as I had to get some stitches removed which had not dissolved and was stopping my wound from healing and causing me pain.”

“However the amount of care I received for my c section recovery was shocking, I was only checked when the dressing was removed. My scar came open and I had to sort myself with little knowledge. There needs to be more care for after c section, my recovery took a very long time and I was still in a lot of pain with no checks from professionals. I had to call my doctors and get information myself. This all should have been explained to me, with how to look after scar, and expectations of recovery!”

“There needs to be more care for after c section, my recovery took a very long time and I was still in a lot of pain with no checks from professionals. I had to call my doctors and get information myself. This all should have been explained to me, with how to look after scar, and expectations of recovery!”

“During my postnatal time on the ward I felt I didn’t get much information about my healing process with a caesarean. I got lots of leaflets on feeding baby but I was not given any about what to expect or how to take care of my wound or aftercare.”

“No antenatal care prepares you for an emergency c-section either, everything is tailored towards a textbook birth. I had to ring for pain relief when I had gone way passed due it as I’d been too busy trying to feed my baby and recover. I was left to work things out for myself a lot and I felt totally alone and unsure following my birth.”

“I have emailed [location name] Maternity regarding a meeting but have not heard back. I emailed in Feb. I want to understand my surgery.”

“It would be helpful to have a debrief after birth giving birth as I do not remember everything that happened. I have questions about my birth and I have no one to contact. I would have liked to speak to the person that delivered my baby and had a debrief of the steps taken.”

“I would like to talk to someone about my birth. I was told I would get a referral to this by a few people and never got one.”

“I was asked if I wanted a debrief to discuss my c section as it was quite traumatic as I lost a lot of blood but the doctor never got back to me in the end so I didn’t get to have a debrief.”

“I asked for a post birth review/debrief at every postnatal check with midwives and they told me one would be booked it at a later date (around 8-12 weeks) however I had never heard anything from them/had an appointment and my baby is now over 4 months old.”

“Quite traumatic birth, was suggested to do birth after thoughts, I requested this and got a bounceback saying the person who does it is on maternity leave and the service has been suspended.”

“It would be helpful to have a debrief after birth giving birth as I do not remember everything that happened. I have questions about my birth and I have no one to contact.”

“I have had a birth reflection since and it opened up a lot to me about how we were treated, how my care was handled and how it now effects me and my mental health. I have struggled a lot and I am disappointed with some of the care I received at [location name].”

“All staff were very good recently requested debrief and spoke to [name] regarding the following feedback: Pain relief didn’t work rather than increase, offer other options. Offer gas & air in theatre whilst setting up. Offer support to transfer onto operating table. Discuss how to self refer for a debrief after birth.”

“I have received counselling as a result of my labour as I was traumatised significantly by it.”

“My requests weren’t listened too. Overall this has left me with a huge amount of trauma around my birth and it ruined an experience I will never get back.”

“Was not checked thoroughly enough pre c-section for pain relief. Could still feel and was incredibly traumatic. I ended up opting for being put to sleep. Recently had an assessment for health in mind and I am on the CISP for PTSD on the trauma scale.”

“I cried in triage because of how the midwife was treating me. In response, the midwife raised a concern about my mental health to my community midwife team, thus relinquishing herself of any accountability for her behaviour being the reason I was so upset and blaming my mental health for my upset.”

“I am extremely traumatised still from my birth experience. I had an emergency c section… I was discharged with an infection to then be re-admitted to another hospital 24 hours later. I tried to get support for all of this like a talking therapy, but was offered CBT which is not suitable for the trauma I went through. I am deeply impacted by this experience.”

“It was upsetting hearing the nurses come in and talk to all the other patients in the room and often ignore me completely. I think this may have slightly contributed to my severe decline in mental health following discharge – where two weeks later I was diagnosed with PPD.”

“The delivery team were amazing but sadly as soon as I was put on the ward for 5 days due to complications of my babys birth it wasnt a great experience which has gave me slight ptsd about going back in a hospital, even when my c section opened up I didnt go in as I was terrified due to my experience with some of the midwives on the ward after the birth.”

“My labour however was unfortunately not a good experience for me. Despite having a flagged specialist care plan, highlighting a need to feel listened to, and to have a compassionate approach due to PTSD from a previous birth, the experience was cold and clinical. This affected me intensely.”

“I also feel the trust could improve communication between staff in regards to previous pregnancy losses. If my appointment was not with [name] I had to explain on multiple occasions this was not my first baby and that my other two babies had died as a result of pre term labour and neonatal death.”

“Haematology support was wildly different between the 2 hospitals which was confusing. Scan technicians were unaware of previous pregnancy loss. Had to explain previous blood clot to doctors whilst screaming through contractions – isn’t this information available on my NHS record?”

“Midwife did not refer me to bereavement or mental health midwife until 7 months pregnant, even though I requested this at my booking appointment at 9 weeks due to previous loss. Midwife said ‘everyone wants support so you’ll have to wait’ and made out like I was an inconvenience for requesting mental health supports!”

“This is my 4th pregnancy. My 3rd resulted in a neonatal death. People were not aware of this throughout my pregnancy and birth. Every appointment tended to be a different doctor at clinic meaning I had to explain the trauma we had been through.”

“I cannot fault the care I received during my pregnancy and after the birth. It was a traumatic delivery and I suffered a severe PPH due to placenta praevia, my son also spent some time in SCBU. Every single midwife was so caring, kind and supportive during our stay. It was a very challenging time both physically and mentally and the team made everything we went through that much easier.”

“I ended up having a meltdown halfway through pregnancy of which I had to reach out for help which resulted in my midwife team referring me to the mental health midwifery team.”

“When I called the antenatal department, no one answered the phone. This happened several times.”

“Tried to ring triage over and over again to ask about my symptoms. I got stuck in an endless loop of ‘press 1’ type menus and if it did get through to triage the phone hung up.”

“It is very hard to contact the midwife during pregnancy.”

“My community midwife was wonderful and I had weekly blood pressure checks with her. However, as she took over from another, I don’t think the correct mobile number was given to me as I rang the number three times over the course of my pregnancy and the phone was never answered and I was never called back – by her and the original number.”

“more information/reassurance when referred for growth scans.”

“When I had growth scans there was little time to discuss concerns and a delivery plan.”

“I had a previous emergency C section, so was expecting to have appointments arranged to discuss birth plan with consultant/Dr. However, I didn’t have any specific appointments for this. I did have additional scans due to an anomaly flagged at 20 week scan, so met consultant at these appointments and discussed births plan. However it was unclear if this would happen at these appointments beforehand. I called my midwives [location name] and [location name] to try to understand if I should expect a specific appointment with consultant to discuss birth plan but no one could tell me if I would have a specific appointment and if so, when this would be. Although in my case this wasn’t a problem as I had the additional scans so had the opportunity to talk to a consultant, I felt frustrated with lack of clarity on this and if I would have had the right appointment if I hadn’t needed the scans.”

“Clinics overbooked, wait times > 2 hours per antenatal appointment.”

“The antenatal check up waiting times are horrendous but the care is great.”

“I have raised these directly but I had concerns with the waiting times for consultant clinic at [location name] (often 2 hour delays).”

“I turned up for my booking appointment on a Saturday morning and the clinic was completely closed. I made an official complaint about this.”

“I had gestational diabetes and the care I received from the diabetes team was outstanding.”

“I had a terrible experience with the Gestational Diabetes team. I was not told for 2 weeks that my GTT had raised concerns appointments were made for me that I had no knowledge of… Nothing else suggested I had gestational diabetes besides the initial GTT test.”

“Triage at [location name] was awful, I had gestational diabetes and they didn’t tell me and also hypertension. They were bringing me in every day for monitoring to sit all day then send me home, they eventually gave me medication after a week.”

“Throughout my pregnancy I was reassured that I could come in as soon as I started having contractions even if it would be a while before the baby was born. However when I phoned, with very strong contractions, the person I spoke to on the phone asked if I should stay at home for an hour to see how I get on – if I had done that the baby would have been born at home!”

“I rang triage and said I was having cramps and discharge, they told me to ring back in an hour and they’ll have a look if there was anymore. So I rang back an hour and explained I had more and I spoke to a different women on the phone said to me not to bother coming in and it’s nothing, I explained I was really worried and I felt completely belittled by her saying ‘it’ll be nothing, just mucus plug.’ Luckily I went in and my baby had pooped in me and was induced within half hour.”

“Appalling care from agency midwife day of labour. I went into triage after waters breaking and there was no beds available on the ward so I was put in a delivery room. I was in a lot of pain and the midwife lacked empathy. My husband was helping to open packets of testing material to check if my waters had gone. There was no second midwife. She led me to believe my waters hadn’t gone when I later found out they had. My cervix was checked and she said it was closed. I said it was 2cm last time and she said ‘2cm is nothing’. I was sent home in pain and made to believe my pain was not bad enough to be in labour. Arrived back at triage hours later and was 10cm dilated.”

“I followed every advice and I attended every appointment only to end up having an emergency c-section at the last minute. A day before I gave birth I was at the hospital because I had called to tell them I was having contractions every 2 to 3 minutes, I came in and I was accessed by the midwife who concluded I wasn’t ready to give birth yet, but I was ready because the contractions were strong and I wasn’t feeling like myself but of course because I wasn’t rolling on the floor in pain they concluded I wasn’t ready. I was giving a membrane sweep & sent home at about 2am in the morning, although they mentioned we could stay back but neither I nor my partner could rest so we headed home. At around 11am in the morning my water broke, I called the clinic & they told me to come in, we hurried to the hospital. By the time we got there the baby had poo & I was told about the emergency c-section. This could have been handled better & they should have listened to me about the pain I was feeling.”

“I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and had a planned c section. The day I had my c section booked there were multiple emergencies which took priority of course. I was told mid morning to eat as they were worried I would get low blood sugar and that my c section would be that afternoon instead, I trusted the staff and did this. A few hours later the emergencies were done quicker than they thought but I could not go in as I had eaten so got bumped down the list. My c section ended up being cancelled at 5pm after being sat on the ward since 7am. I understood the emergencies could not be helped, they checked my sugar before I left which was now low as I had waited so long without food.”

“Whilst waiting for my c-section I had a similar thing where they told us to get there for 7am and we’d be taken down by 11am. We were in a waiting room and I had to lie on the floor, at 11am they said it may not happen today. I was starving and in agony, at 1pm they said okay let’s go down.”

“I had a planned c-section, but was last on the ‘list’ for that day. Due to several emergencies, I wasn’t seen until much later than expected. Whilst this couldn’t be avoided, it triggered my anxiety and there was very little information given to us to when I would be having the baby.”

“From when my water broke they kept me waiting over 24 hours that led to my baby had an infection when born. Next time they should induce me straight away.”

“Spent 3 days in hospital waiting for induction after my waters broke to start contractions however due to lack of staff I was unable to go to the delivery suite for this to happen. I then ended up classed as an emergency c section which took 3 days before being able to have this done.”

“The triage however is utterly lacking – in all bar my last visit it was an 8/9 hour + day and there were simply no doctors. How you could be expected to go into spontaneous labour while sat in that awful [location name] triage waiting room (where at times there were no seats available) I don’t know.”

“The only negative I have is waiting for a hospital bed due to lack of staff and not being assessed regularly during labor again due to staff shortages.”

“I was admitted as my baby had stopped growing at 38 weeks and was not given a bed for 24 hours despite being told rather worryingly that the baby needed to be born for their safety.”

“I was called in Thursday morning once a bed was available. Thursday evening they had started the induction process and I was in the queue to move onto the labour ward and have my waters broken. This didn’t happen until Saturday night. Induction process was equally badly managed. I was asked to arrive to the hospital while there were still no beds available and the process wasn’t going to start for another 24hrs.”

“The only hiccup I can think of now was that I was booked for induction on Monday at 08:30 however wasn’t able to be transferred to delivery suite until Tuesday 16:00 as they were so busy.”

“My midwife [name] who is part of the [location name] team was amazing. She got to know me, respected my wishes and really took her time to make my care feel personal and not just another mum to be.”

“The midwife’s who helped me during labour and birth was absolutely amazing! I’m very lucky to say I had the birth that I wanted! Calm and positive. They were very reassuring and helpful.”

“I had a really positive birth in the birth centre and had a water birth which is exactly what I wanted. The midwives supporting me were amazing particularly [name] who really helped to calm me down and was able to support me exactly how I needed whilst also giving me the space to do it on my own.”

“The ongoing care and support myself, my baby and partner received from day one of my pregnancy and after I had given birth was second to none. My community midwife was amazing throughout and listened to my concerns and made me feel heard. The labour midwives who were on shift whilst I gave birth were just as amazing, they listened to my wishes of a water birth and followed through with this immediately. They respected my space and offered support when needed.”

“The consultant I spoke to was extremely supportive of this decision and gave me all of the information to make sure I was making the right decision, without influencing my thoughts.”

“Felt staff pushed for vaginal birth too much. My first two babies were vaginal delivery, this time opted for c section given my past difficulties (and this baby was breach…). Regardless, on multiple occasions the staff pushed for vaginal delivery again.”

“The doctor at the point of my birth when deciding to go for c-section or assisted birth, when I chose c-section, they tried to talk me out of it and did not make me feel supported.”

“My preference was always to have a home birth; at no point was I offered this choice. I had to continually push for this to happen.”

“He wanted me to accept the only option he gave me, which was an instrumental delivery. I never wanted an instrumental delivery and I asked for a C-section based on my own knowledge because the doctor did not give me that option… I’m sure they never read the birth plan that the midwife filled out during my prenatal care where I said that I never wanted an instrumental birth.”

“My main issue was that when I went into hospital for checks after 42 weeks it was very clear the pressure I was under for induction. This is a very narrow minded way to approach a woman in my position.”

“Stop pushing people towards inducement.”

“There is a pressure to book inductions in which isn’t presented as a choice.”

“I wasnt happy with the approach of the obgyn that was appointed to me, [name], he made me feel uncomfortable most of times and made unnecessary comments. My baby was measuring on the smaller side but everything else was great with me and my pregnancy and she was still growing after every scan. I was pushed to give birth at 37 weeks even if i insisted as i trusted my body that everything is okay and i can carry her without risks at least 38 weeks. My decision was not supported but instead the risks were pointed out in a very scary way.”

“My only negative; during my antenatal care was that I felt pressured into having an induction, despite having gone overdue with my previous two + no birth complications.”

“Antenatal care at [location name] was average especially when trying to persuade me not to have a C section when I had already made up my mind.”

“The consultants were defensive and patronising in their discussions and had no time or interest in listening to my concerns or different strategies. As a result of being endlessly misunderstood i opted to trust myself and my body and gave birth naturally and safely at home alone.”

“However, when it came to my choice of a home birth ‘outside of guidelines’, she didn’t fill me with confidence and expressed how she hoped I wouldn’t go into labour when she was on call. I also found one particular consultant to be very patronising, condescending and dismissive when I expressed my desire for a home birth.”

“We were accepted at the delivery unit first, despite planning to give birth at the birth centre. On the phone we were told that in the birth centre there were no free rooms and that it was a chaotic night in the hospital so we were offered the delivery unit as the only option.”

“The planned home birth didn’t go ahead due team unavailable once on established labour. The Trust still not providing enough staff for the home birth service.”

“I was told all along I had a low risk pregnancy and could give birth in the midwife led unit. As my due date approached, I began to hear that delivery in a midwife led unit was statistically unlikely (see [location name] stats on midwife led vs delivery suite deliveries). I was told staffing of the midwife led unit is often the issue so women are sent to the delivery suite regardless. I think it’s important to better set the expectations for women who are keen, as I was, for a midwife led delivery. It seems disingenuous to offer it all along if in reality it’s unlikely to be where the baby is ultimately delivered.”

“The only negative I experienced was in regards to the midwife led unit at [location name]. I had really wanted to give birth in the [location name] birth centre after the information I had been given from my midwife and what I had seen on the tour of the hospital that we had joined our antenatal classes. I have been told that the number of people that were able to use the [location name] birth centre was very low due to staff levels and the information that the midwife gave us during the tour seemed consistent with this. I had spoken to the community midwife about it and she had said that a lot of people didn’t get to use the [location name]. I do feel that this added a lot of stress to the later stage of my pregnancy.”

“My partner missed the birth of our child due to staff not listening to how I was feeling. Visiting hours need to be scrapped.”

“The biggest issue I faced was my partner being sent home when I went into early labour. I had to stay on the ward but he was not allowed to stay with me and I was really distressed. I have really bad anxiety around being in hospital and this made things so hard.”

“I was told my partner was unable to stay with me in hospital both during and after labour despite telling them I was too anxious to be on my own in labour.”

“I had an emergency c section and was put to sleep and understand some of the reasons why. But when my partner got told to say goodbye, removed from theatre and was left to sit in the delivery suit in the dark (where all our stuff had been removed) alone for half an hour or so with no one explaining what was happening or comfort, it was very traumatic for him.”

“I did not have proper pain management during my labour.”

“I feel my contractions were not taken seriously during my induction. And I was not proactively offered any pain relief.”

“I feel the 4 hour checks should be reduced to two as I had to labour on just paracetamol while not being able to physically stand due to pain and pressure.”

“Pain relief was only given if I asked for it, there was no regular check in with me to offer pain relief. I wasn’t really sure what was available to me.”

“When in labour it would have been nice to have a few more check ins from staff as I had to ring a couple of times (once which was that I was due my pain relief).”

“The medical team could have helped me with the pain; I was not offered an epidural as discussed in the childbirth planning consultation, nor any other type of medication to relieve my pain except for the gas, which did absolutely nothing. I had to go through a very uncomfortable and painful natural birth because the midwives claimed there was “no time left”.”

“When I asked for pain relief I was told no doctors were available due to demand of other patients. I was left with only gas and air, was told to keep pushing despite no more strength to do so.”

“There were similar delays with getting pain relief during labour because of the need for someone to sign off the meds. I get that procedures need to be followed but the delay really needs to be addressed.”

“I was happy with my care, except for being unable to have an epidural. I was in pain but only dilated 1cm so was denied the epidural, but then the baby arrived within the hour.”

“I was in pain I was being induced and it was like they didn’t believe me and minutes after that I was in active labour and had to have a c section. I was in so much pain and had no help or didn’t believe I was as I dilated really fast.”

“I was given pain medication close to giving birth that should not have happened and caused my baby’s heart rate to drop thus leading to an emergency c section. I strongly believe if I was examined more frequently this pain medication would not have been offered and a strong chance I would have not resulted in a emergency c section.”

“In labour my epidural didn’t work. It took me getting up and walking before staff believed me.”

“During labor, I was administered an epidural, which was supposed to alleviate my pain. However, due to a leak, the epidural only affected half of my body, leaving me in severe pain for an extended period.”

“I had an emergency c section the man who delivered my baby kept repeating he was going to start cutting me open when I was still awake with NO epidural, this box isn’t big enough to write about that s*** show!”

“During my labour, there was a lovely midwife who kept insisting to me that I should have an epidural while I understand her good intentions, I think if a mother wants to push through it and have no medication then that should be respected. I heard afterwards (after birth) from my mum and sister that she told them to convince me to take the epidural. A bit frustrating but it’s okay.”

“When I arrived at the birthing centre nothing was ready even though I had a history of quick deliveries and the midwives didn’t seem to know what they were doing. They did not get the birthing pool ready or even set up a bed so I had to give birth to my son on the floor as there was no where else to go. It was an incredibly traumatic experience and I did not feel well looked after there.”

“I had an awful experience from when I was admitted in to be induced. My heart rate and my baby’s heart rate went very high so I decided on a c section where I was left for 3 days constant ill of mouth alongside I had an infection and could barely get out of the bed. I waited hours and hours for doctors and I feel deeply neglected with the whole situation it was the first birth I had and the treatment was awful. I was left attached onto a drip that had finished for 2 hours after and asked to get it removed several times and asked for anti sickness several times and had to wait 2-3 hours.”

“I gave birth in 3hrs 50mins at 19:52 hours after having my waters broken. I was not administered the hormone drip. I asked for an epidural around 18:30 but was told by the initial midwife he would not be checking me until 20:00hrs – at approximately 19:00hrs I told him I felt like I needed to push. Again I was told he would not be checking me until 20:00hrs. He then handed over to the next midwife, I repeated to her I felt like I needed to push so she checked me and I was in fact 10cm dilated. Looking back it just felt like the initial midwife wanted to clock off shift and didn’t want to get involved in the labour.”

“I wasn’t allowed pain relief as they couldn’t confirm active labour as they wouldn’t examine. I had bite marks in my hand and was pulling out my hair in sheer agony. They saw the pain I was in and ignored me, then congratulated me for going through labour on two paracetamol. I didn’t feel like a hero – I felt violated and traumatised.”

“When I went into labour, I called the maternity ward. I said I felt I needed to be seen and they said my contractions weren’t close enough, so I had to lie and say I couldn’t feel my baby to get them to take me seriously. I got there and my baby was delivered only 30 minutes later. When I got there, the midwife did a cervical check and said I was 4cm dilated. I explained this wasn’t 4cm pain as this was my second child. I was so scared and said to them I think something is seriously wrong and that if I was only 4cm I think I’m dying. The midwife kept laughing at me. I got angry because I was in so much pain and she turned to my husband and sarcastically said ‘good luck’. Furthermore, I told the midwife my baby’s head was coming out to which she laughed and said ‘no it’s not’. She didn’t check, my husband had to look to confirm that yes, this was a very quick birth and my daughter’s head was in fact coming out.”

“I did not consent to an episiotomy but was given one.”

“And also I was given an injection immediately after my baby came out on my right thighs and I was not told what the injection was for, and have been having slight pain when I stretch my leg.”

“Please involve partner or someone else who is carer for pregnant women to take consent and specific type of birth decision at the moment.”

“I have only one concern. During labor, when the medical team decided they needed to use forceps and transfer me to another room, I was asked to sign a document. I was told that if I didn’t sign it, they wouldn’t be able to proceed. I was in severe pain, using gas, and had no idea what the document was about. I asked if my husband could sign it, but I was told it had to be my signature. It is unacceptable to force a patient in such a condition to sign anything. To this day, I still don’t know what I signed.”

“Whilst it was lovely that my husband could stay the night, the facilities for him were terrible. He only had what I would describe as a plastic school chair to sleep on, which isn’t adequate for a new father.”

“One thing that I think could be better but I understand it’s not possible based on budgets is the seat / bed setup for partners / family. It was a really uncomfy chair.”

“When being unable to go home after birth due to complications, make partners as comfortable as possible if staying overnight beds available sooner. I spent 7 days in hospital & my husband slept on a chair for 2 days.”

“The only thing that would have made the whole experience better for us would have been for my husband to have had access to a comfortable reclining chair or somewhere to lay down. It just meant that we were equally as sleep deprived as each other almost and when this became more of an issue for me he could have been more rested to look out for both me and the baby instead of also being quite exhausted as well.”

“I think partners should be provided with reclining chair to assist in their rest as they are essential in care and recovery.”

“Aftercare on the ward wasn’t as good [as labour ward]. Longer wait times for pain killers.”

“When I told the hospital staff for pain killer, then every time I was waiting for long hours.”

“The only issue I had in hospital was with pain meds. I went all night without them because I kept thinking they would bring them around and they didn’t.”

“On ward told by midwife that paracetamol & ibuprofen would be enough for post c-section pain despite asking for oral medication, before I mobilised for the first time. It was not & I fainted in the shower due to the pain.”

“When I had asked for pain medication (was only paracetamol!) one of the nurses said she would get me some, came back some hours later because she had forgot, said she’d get it for me in a sec when the changeover happened. I asked for my pain meds, they couldn’t give any to me because she wrote down that I had received some!”

“Not even 24 hours after my cesarean I was left 7 hours with no pain relief. When I asked the midwife on shift when I would be having it she said I didn’t have any as I needed to ask for it. By this point I couldn’t get myself up off the bed and got so upset (I already struggle with mental health). The midwife I had that night was an angel and made sure I had stronger pain relief, and kept on top of it for me.”

“The lack of pain relief post c-section was horrendous given that it is major surgery, I was left hours without anyone attending when I pressed emergency buzzer.”

“The after birth care in the hospital ward is embarrassing and impacts negatively the perception about [location name]. I spent the first night with no painkillers even when I requested them repeatedly (with an episiotomy and 2 stitches) — really stressful and dangerous for an epileptic patient. When I asked any questions, the midwife would read the answer from the pamphlet they gave us the first day. They didn’t know the answers or had further information. I arrived there after a 21 hours labour with almost no sleeping and I was concerned I could have a seizure. No one cared. The neurology clinic was very concerned when I told them my experience. Shameful.”

“I felt uncomfortable with some staff so I wouldn’t press buzzer for anything and had to clean up and walk to a water machine after having C-section.”

“Asked a midwife to help me lift my nearly 10 pound baby out of the next to me as my incision was hurting when I twisted and she said ‘that’s the whole point of a next to me that you do it yourself’ which made me feel terrible and left me crying.”

“Aftercare was virtually non-existent — didn’t change my pads, didn’t check my c section scar / bandage once, wanted to discharge me the next day when I told several staff members I wasn’t ready. I was in a lot of pain, could hardly walk, didn’t have support at home — all fell on deaf ears and I was kicked out of an empty ward so it wasn’t like they needed the bed.”

“I felt and believe that the [location name] hospital staff were neglectful in a sense due to I only saw them maybe twice every 13 hours. The only staff member I actually thought was amazing and was good at her job and wasn’t rude was a student midwife named [name].”

“I struggled mostly post-birth with the care/lack of care that I received. It was like a third world hospital ward.”

“I would like to mention that during handover times, no staff were available and responsive to the call bell. The call bell rang for over 30 minutes before I was checked on. I was still unable to walk independently at this stage (post c-section) and my partner was not there.”

“I was disappointed with the length of time it took to get me cleaned up and moved to the room I would be staying in at the birth centre.”

“I asked for new sheets as they were covered in blood from where I was bleeding post birth, they never got round to changing them. So was sat in my bloody sheets for over 12 hours.”

“I was given no care post birth and left covered in blood to clean myself up which was very bad and really affected my first hour where I should have been bonding with the baby.”

“I had to ask for my sheets to be changed. I also had to ask for help with washing when the support staff just put all the stuff on the bed expecting me to do it myself when I could barely move or bend post c section.”

“No care at all for personal hygiene after the C-section even when I stayed with my baby for a week in intensive care and I couldn’t bend to wash myself properly.”

“After the birth of my baby, I was left by my midwife — she said she should be 5 minutes, she didn’t come back for at least an hour. A new midwife came in and said the previous midwife had gone to their dinner and they switched shifts. During this time I had no idea that my baby was hypothermic and he had problems with his gut. I believe if I was seen to earlier or had the same midwife with me this could’ve been caught right after birth not 2-3 hrs later.”

“Also, a couple of hours after I gave birth, I raised a concern about my baby looking yellow with the midwife, which she didn’t give me a satisfactory answer for and wasn’t acted upon until the night-shift midwife came on and she did her preliminary checks and confirmed that the neonatal doctors should have looked at my baby as he was quite yellow. Things moved fast after that and my baby had to be admitted in the Special Care Unit to receive phototherapy and antibiotics.”

“After having a C-section, I feel there’s not enough support to care for baby. My baby needed light therapy and it was extremely difficult attending to my baby, getting him in and out the incubator myself for a feed when recovering from a C-section. I feel I wasn’t listened to when expressing concerns about my baby not feeding well. The midwife was happy to discharge me even though my baby hadn’t fed well through the night. He was on the hypoglycaemia pathway, so as blood was being taken the doctor ran a bilirubin test and it was picked up that his bilirubin levels were high which explained why he wasn’t feeding well.”

“The delivery team were amazing but sadly as soon as I was put on the ward for 5 days due to complications of my baby’s birth it wasn’t a great experience which has given me slight PTSD about going back in a hospital. Even when my c section opened up I didn’t go in as I was terrified due to my experience with some of the midwives on the ward after the birth. Some of the midwives were not nice at all, unsupportive and didn’t listen to me which resulted in my anxiety (which I wasn’t able to get my medication for until towards the end of my stay) being really bad and feeling very stressed and emotional. I could not wait to get home where I felt safe.”

“Was shocked and appalled by my awful post birth experience at [location name]. Felt forgotten about in the delivery suite for 7 hours after the birth. Postnatal ward experience was terrible, midwives had little to no empathy, shockingly brash and rude considering how vulnerable women are post birth.”

“The postnatal ward was the most unrelaxed environment and did not aid recovery and recuperation — I couldn’t wait to leave.”

“Also way too many interruptions too many times a day and night on PN ward – rest basically impossible.”

“I found the maternity recovery ward to be a really challenging environment. Space was incredibly limited on the ward, meaning certain elements of my recovery and breastfeeding journey were complicated.”

“The postnatal ward is absolutely boiling. Someone next to me had a room thermometer — 28 degrees!”

“My experience on the post labour ward was very poor; how this environment is conducive to recovery is beyond me. It was incredibly hot, loud and uncomfortable. The postnatal wards are horrible — from the somewhat calm and peaceful labour ward to the noisy and flustering postnatal ward is shocking. Babies screaming, extremely cramped spaces.”

“Facilities at [location name] for postnatal not fit for purpose — small bays and lack of privacy in shared bays. Overnight lighting is intrusive and space is limited. Postnatal experience was awful based on other patient behaviour. Facilities for birth partner are awful especially given the level of support they provide to take pressure off clinical staff.”

“I found the ward extremely hot and the baby was put in a woolly hat — the room was much hotter than the recommended room temperature for babies, especially with hats on. I questioned this but was dismissed by the midwife.”

“If a woman needs to stay in hospital for more than 24 hours after the birth of their baby, they should be offered a private room to get them off the postnatal wards. They are far too noisy with new mums and babies, machines, bay lights, midwives checking on mums and babies etc. I had to stay in for 4 nights after the birth of my baby (I had already been in for 4 nights trying to be induced before my c-section) and I was left on the postnatal ward for the first 3 nights.”

“There was no seat in the shower — it was difficult to shower after having a C-section, I really struggled.”

“The hospital was disgustingly hot and made me feel really ill. The heating was on (with no thermostat) but the windows were open.”

“Ward rooms should be air conditioned.”

“Needs to be more understanding and awareness of the birthing and recovery process for an autistic person. The recovery ward was horrendous for me and despite asking many times for a separate room wasn’t given one, even when empty for most of my stay.”

“I told them I had ADHD and all of the other women and babies around me and monitors beeping were really over stimulating and causing me stress and I was ignored. I genuinely feel this horrific aftercare is what caused me to have postnatal depression.”

“I was adamant that I wanted to have skin to skin as soon as my baby was born by C section but got told that they didn’t do that at [location name].”

“My biggest problem with everything was the 2 hours in theatre after my baby was born and I don’t have a complete answer as to why I missed the first 2 hours of my baby’s life. And it deeply upsets me that I missed it — I didn’t hold him first, feed him, change him first. And I haven’t ever been informed as to why.”

“One thing I didn’t like about the postnatal care straight after my c section — they never really allowed me to bond with the baby, they took me straight to the ICU.”

“I wasn’t offered skin-to-skin contact, despite it being explicitly stated in my birth plan. It was actually the anaesthetist who recognised my desire for skin-to-skin and communicated this to the midwives on my behalf.”

“Every time a midwife saw me asleep with my baby next to me or on me asleep in the bed they would wake me up and move him to the cot where he would wake up and scream. The beds should allow bed sharing as that’s the only way my baby would sleep! Bedsharing is safe if done properly and midwives just need to give guidance on that.”

“Despite going in alone and having this amazing support during labour they decided to allow family members in without asking 5 minutes after. This action ruined my hour of bonding.”

“One of the nurses on the overnight shift had a terrible attitude which has left me feeling upset even now. As there was no room on the postnatal ward, I was placed in a premature ward (the ward which has a nursery). My baby was crying and needed to be handed to me from the next to me cot (I had had a c section so couldn’t move). After pressing the button for help, she came and asked ‘what do I want’ abruptly and proceeded to talk to me very patronisingly when trying to breastfeed and talking to me like I was stupid, which caused me to become very upset. I only wanted to hold, comfort and feed my baby and wanted to tell her to leave me alone but couldn’t as I needed assistance as I couldn’t move. It was like I was an inconvenience when I was told to buzz if I needed anything — this only made me feel like I couldn’t.”

“After the C-section there was no communication between the doctors and me about the birth or the health condition of my baby. We didn’t even know that he had been born.”

“Wish the doctors/nurses would have explained in more detail why I needed what I needed. I wasn’t told how much blood I lost, was just told I needed 2 blood transfusions.”

“We had great maternity care at [location name] barring a couple of things — forceps were used during a planned C section but we weren’t told why, nor is it mentioned in our hospital notes. This has affected the shape of our baby’s head. Discharge was a long delayed process and the midwife was ready to discharge us in the middle of the night but we requested to delay by a day so we could travel back home with a newborn safely. We weren’t at the time advised that massive postpartum haemorrhage was a significant concern. Even though they kept me under monitoring and did an iron infusion, we were not clearly communicated as to why this had happened. Only a few weeks postpartum we received a letter about it stating they were looking into the learnings. We still have not heard back on the outcome of that review.”

“I also contacted the after birth team about my birth and they explained my birth very well. I only found out that my baby’s heart rate kept dropping because the cord was round his neck three times — I was never told this from doctors whilst I was in hospital.”

“I was not made aware my daughter was jaundiced despite it being written in my discharge notes.”

“My partner was unable to stay due to rules and as a result I self discharged 2 days post birth as I was receiving no help from the staff to care for my newborn.”

“I wish my husband was allowed to stay overnight which I think would have made a big difference.”

“We felt very supported and we appreciated that my husband could stay a couple of nights with me to support the feeding plan — this was so important to us and got us started on the right track.”

“A huge benefit was allowing partners to stay — without this it would have been horrific as no midwives were available for simple tasks.”

“It’s terrible partners can’t stay overnight. I really needed my husband after my c-section and struggled without him.”

“I think it would be better if arrangements were made for the guardians of caesarean mothers to stay close by at night after delivery.”

“The only thing I do think should change at my chosen hospital is partners being allowed to stay with you after a c section.”

“I felt difficult being on my own the first night after a c section especially because my baby was born at 4pm and it took me a while to be able to stand up. I would recommend letting the birth partner stay for the first night to support mum.”

“After delivery, recovering in the ward was difficult due to antisocial behaviour from neighbouring patients. We were only asked how comfortable we were in the ward once we left but I wished we were asked during our stay if we felt safe by the people staying around us.”

“The wards were so loud and busy and none of the other patients had any respect for anyone around them. The midwives should be setting rules for this — e.g. don’t bring curry into the ward at 1am!”

“Antenatal and postnatal wards are inhumane. They are noisy, not clean enough and not restful enough considering the need for relaxation and rest in preparation for birth and for nurturing a newborn after a great physical feat. In particular for women who have had a traumatic birth.”

“Very glad to hear partners are no longer allowed to stay 24h at [location name]. I did not feel safe at night as the patient opposite was being verbally abused by her partner during the night. I informed the staff on 2 occasions and no one came in the room. Another night, I asked the patient’s partner to please keep the noise down — I had not slept for a few days as the ward is very noisy and my baby was unwell, it was 4am and he was on speakerphone laughing with friends. His response was ‘who the f*** are you talking to’.”

“I completely understand why it happened, but I wished that my feeding preferences weren’t talked about every visit. I expressed from Day 1 that I wanted to exclusively bottle-feed, and being asked about it a few times at the beginning was fine. But being asked even at the very end felt annoying.”

“The midwives pushed me to use formula and then baby didn’t want to breast feed.”

“I was also accused of not feeding my baby enough whilst he was breast feeding and felt pressured to bottle feed when he had jaundice.”

“I can’t breast feed due to a mastectomy. I had no support to formula feed my baby. I had a few patronising looks from midwives when I said I was formula feeding.”

“More help and support after birth when asking for help with breast feeding.”

“I didn’t really know what to expect from the first 24 hours. My baby was quite sleepy therefore I didn’t breastfeed enough in the first 24 hours therefore she lost over 10% of her birth weight. I would have appreciated someone advising me to feed every 3 hours or so which no one said.”

“I feel once on the ward if you are bottle feeding, specially as a first time mum, you should be given advice on how often / how many ounces you should be feeding your child.”

“The aftercare was excellent with lots of help and support with feeding when my baby was following the vulnerable baby pathway.”

“I was particularly impressed by the infant feeding team support this time around, much improved and very supportive.”

“The midwives on the post natal ward were sooooo helpful in helping me with feeding!”

“In hospital after my emergency c section, my baby wasn’t feeding well, and the staff were too busy to help, or spend time with us to assess her feeding.”

“When on the ward after giving birth, communication was poorer and I didn’t receive any support with breastfeeding as they assumed I was doing okay. By day three my baby was on a stage 2 feeding plan and these midwives offered a lot of support/tips which would have been good on day one.”

“Wanted to breastfeed but had no support in doing so so I had to use formula. After I gave birth I hadn’t been told how to position baby for breastfeeding, my baby had problems with latching. After a few days we asked the feeding team for help.”

“I wish I had more help with breastfeeding as I was struggling and I was just told to pump.”

“I requested breastfeeding support in the postnatal unit but was fobbed off, told they might not be working because it’s a weekend. My baby ended up losing 14% of her birthweight and was almost admitted and fed through an NG tube as a result.”

“I waited all day for someone to come and speak to me about feeding as I was formula feeding — no one came and I was sent away with a leaflet instead.”

“I feel I wasn’t listened to when expressing concerns about my baby not feeding well.”

“The midwife was happy to discharge me even though my baby hadn’t fed well through the night. He was on the hypoglycaemia pathway, so as blood was being taken the doctor ran a bilirubin test and it was picked up that his bilirubin levels were high which explained why he wasn’t feeding well.”

“I needed lots of support to start breastfeeding and [name], one of the team on the postnatal ward, helped me so much. If it wasn’t for her help I wouldn’t have had the confidence to continue trying to breastfeed as I wanted.”

“The support for feeding latch was very helpful — more info on quantities of milk would have been helpful.”

“While in the post-natal ward the cleaners knocked over a bin with vomit in. The vomit came into our room and it took them a while to clean it up. I feel like this needs to be addressed as this was not hygienic especially when there are new born babies around.”

“My experience on the post labour ward was very poor; how this environment is conducive to recovery is beyond me. It was incredibly hot, loud and uncomfortable. Toilet/shower facilities were dirty.”

“The floors in the wards were disgustingly dirty!”

“Guest toilets were gross (forced to use it when the other toilets weren’t available). On the upside the ward itself was cleaned regularly (washrooms could do with a facelift but clean considering the traffic).”

“The only complaint is the food, it was absolutely shocking!”

“I’m gluten free and vegetarian and found it a nightmare to be able to eat anything properly on the post natal ward. The menus are confusing, staff were clueless on dietary requirements even though they were ordering and preparing the food for you.”

“Hospital food is not good — the rice is very hard and not fully cooked. You should improve the food please.”

“Great food choices and tasted nice.”

“I have coeliac disease and must follow a strict gluten free diet. I was very stressed about the possibility of gluten exposure during my induction/labour. I had to avoid eating anything I didn’t bring from home.”

“The discharge after birth was unnecessarily delayed and long. I was told this was staffing but the communication could have been better — i.e. I was told someone would come in a few hours, and 6 hours later I was still there struggling to get any update.”

“My discharge was delayed due to nurses not being available and them telling me a time and not turning up, and me having to keep asking.”

“Our discharge was delayed due to the doctors carrying out a ward round but not physically seeing patients (us) and medical plans not being communicated to the midwife looking after us.”

“The discharge process took 6 hours for paperwork to be ready!”

“I waited 10 hours for discharge and they wanted to discharge me finally at 1am after my husband had just gone home.”

“Was told I was being discharged so packed my bags and then told I had to stay another night.”

“I was told I’d be discharged following my final course of antibiotics at 3pm the day after my birth but was not discharged until 11pm and was left waiting still sat in the blood from my birth the previous day.”

“We weren’t discharged until late in the afternoon, despite being ready since 10am. It would have been nice if we could have been prioritised, given that we were fully ready to go, just waiting for medication.”

“My paperwork showed the discharge was approved at 10 but we couldn’t leave the hospital until around 1900 because of the incredible delay in getting antibiotics dispensed.”

“Discharge was delayed waiting for medications from pharmacy for baby.”

“Discharge should be done more smoothly. Medications are not always given when leaving. Pharmacy service and hospital don’t work together — very poor communication and they work extremely slowly.”

“Only negative is discharge took hours — waiting on pharmacy for meds.”

“I was also discharged from [location name] without carrying out assessments on the baby and I had to rush back the following day to carry out these checks.”

“We were discharged from the hospital after only 12 hours which was very early and stressful for us — we were not ready as first time parents yet.”

“I felt rushed to discharge.”

“Feel the discharge is very quick especially as a first time mum.”

“As a first time mother, it would have been less stressful if I stayed in the hospital longer after my planned c-section.”

“Wanted to discharge me the next day when I told several staff members I wasn’t ready — I was in a lot of pain, could hardly walk, didn’t have support at home. All fell on deaf ears and I was kicked out of an empty ward so it wasn’t like they needed the bed.”

“I was not given adequate pain relief to take at home which led to 48 hours of suffering and poor ability to care for my new baby.”

“Sometimes medicines are not prescribed — they just tell us to buy them, so they are costly. If possible, prescribing all medicines would mean there are no worries for us to buy them.”

“I also was not given iron tablets which were needed — my doctor prescribed these at a later date when I got dizzy.”

“Following my c section I wasn’t given pain medication regularly as per the prescription. Again I had to advocate for myself to ensure I received the care I needed.”

“I was also severely constipated and wasn’t given any laxatives to go home with. I didn’t go to the toilet for 12 days after my c-section — nobody told me the painkillers they were giving me would make me severely constipated and cause severe pain.”

“After my C-Section I was discharged without any blood thinners, only stockings. I asked the discharge nurse why everyone else on the ward were prescribed anticoagulants and not me, and they said that I only needed stockings.”

“The 3–4 day postnatal check and bloods — they wanted me to go to [location name] hospital from [location name]! But I had to complain and someone visited me instead as I could not drive 3 days postpartum. Ridiculous!”

“Two of the home visits were switched to the hospital due to understaffing which I didn’t necessarily like so soon after bringing the baby home.”

“I was told I could go to the midwife centre behind the [location name] Practice at any point. My scar was infected and my daughter was projectile vomiting. I pressed the door bell 5 times waiting for someone to come and help me. I waited for 40 minutes (I heard the door bell go off). I went outside and I could see them all looking at me so I went back in and pressed the bell. No one came to see me.”

“The only thing I would say is the aftercare could have been better — they wanted me to go to them when I don’t drive etc. I think those should have been home appointments.”

“I thought I should have received a phone call at home after pregnancy about c section recovery. I did with my first child — to check on healing and pain symptoms.”

“The support of health visitors seems to vary from mother to mother. I only had 2 visits in the first few weeks of birth but others have regular visits months down the line and I’m not sure why.”

“After being discharged, I got no support — no midwives came until I rang up and they came out 5 days after. They said I’d been missed from a list. I felt so unsupported.”

“I got handed over to community midwives who were supposed to come and check my blood pressure every other day and I didn’t see anyone.”

“The support following birth on discharge from the ward wasn’t great — whilst at home, support was also poor. I had little information about midwives who would support initially and I was discharged whilst my son had several unresolved issues (which needed hospital visits).”

“Postnatal check up at the GP wasn’t good at all — the GP didn’t care and was only there to tick boxes.”

“My 6 week follow up with the GP was a 2 minute telephone call which was extremely inadequate. If I didn’t have medical knowledge I would have been lost.”

“I would have liked the 6 week check up to be a bit more thorough as I felt like the GP was rushing through a checklist. Also postnatally I think there should be more checks on a woman’s physical health, as currently it feels like a very tick box exercise when discussing this at the 6 week check.”

“I still think the GP postnatal check is the poorest part of my care. Just felt literally tick boxy.”

“I did feel very rushed in my GP check up.”

“I also felt I was rushed in my 8 week checkup with the GP with her specifically stating she didn’t have enough time.”

“The GP check up was barely 5 minutes and didn’t cover any key areas expected. I would maybe have liked to have had a midwife check up or conversation at 6 weeks to check in on baby development and recovery.”

“I tried to discuss prolapse with my GP at the 9 week check but they didn’t have time.”

“My postnatal care was local to [location name] and my GP at [location name] medical centre is by far the worst GP surgery in the country, hence the negative feedback for the GP. They do not do a proper postnatal check up and they don’t listen to your concerns about women’s postnatal health at all.”

“GP 6–8 week checkup was not what I expected. No physical exam on me to check healing, and poor contraception support.”

“I felt the GP check up for me was very quick and minimal. They were unaware of the type of birth I had, which should have been on notes available. There was no offer to check my wound despite me saying ‘I think it is’ when they asked if it’s healing nicely. I felt my lack of confidence in my answer should have prompted them to check.”

“I want to emphasise the lack of support available postpartum. In the first four weeks (when we are monitored by the professional team), everything went normally. The breastfeeding problem started later: mastitis. I want to highlight the lack of knowledge and support from the GP regarding this issue.”

“The GP is not reasonably informed on women’s health and postnatal care. I was refused a diastasis recti and pelvic floor check — in fact the doctor I saw advised I didn’t need to worry about pelvic floor health due to having a c-section, which is dangerously misinformed.”

“My only concern is about the GP not taking seriously the asymmetry issues of my baby. At the 8 week check up I was told it would resolve on its own but of course it hasn’t 1.5 months later. I wasn’t provided any advice on how to manage it or what to do if it doesn’t get better.”

“My GP appointment was disappointing. We were not seen until my daughter was nearly 11 weeks old, which was not only late for her 6 week check but also meant her first jabs were 3 weeks late too.”

“My baby is nearly 12 weeks and we have not yet had our postnatal checks. I called the GP to raise my concerns when I got the appointment date at around 3 weeks postpartum. No one seemed to care — no apologies — and was pretty much told it is what it is. No appointments available, even though the surgery’s policy has always been that you cannot book an appointment more than 3 weeks in advance, so I was confused as to why I had a 9 week wait.”

“Breastfeeding advice in the hospital was great, but post leaving the hospital I did not get much help from the midwife or health visitor to help in my journey.”

“My feeding journey was and still is incredibly challenging and I have received no support or follow up regarding this.”

“Felt bullied by community midwife about not exclusively breastfeeding — totally unnecessary aggro for a sleep-deprived first time mum.”

“I was sent home with my baby with feeding problems — baby wouldn’t stay latched, home breast pump was useless — so I was left with my only option being to formula feed.”

“A volunteer at [location name] was called a feeding expert. She isn’t. That’s okay but just call her a volunteer and don’t advertise feeding support because for vulnerable mums she is in a position to actually cause damage. When you’re on the edge.”

“I was very nervous about being able to feed my baby postnatally. My community midwife was very reassuring.”

“[name], who came out to support me with feeding after my daughter was born, was a font of knowledge and solved my issues immediately as well as being amazing emotional support.”