"Labour and After Labour Care"

I was lucky enough to be a part of the local MGP program (these women are fantastic thankfully!) especially seeing as St John in Bunbury is no longer doing maternity (which I believe is an extreme disappointment for a lot of local expectant mothers). 

I went into early labour with my first born child (my water broke) but had to come in and be admitted to the maternity ward as natural labour was not starting. The midwives on the maternity/labour ward were not too bad, I did though have a doctor who managed to mess up my cannula in my hand 3 times before finally getting it right on the 4th (at the time this hurt way more than my increasing contractions). I was induced the next morning, and everything went about as well as it can really (a few hiccups but nothing drastic at all). 

Everything went to pieces when I had to be admitted to stay overnight and was transferred to the other maternity ward with the new babies. All private rooms were taken so I was given a shared room with another lady who was quite a noisy sleeper. And then I was told that my partner could not stay or help me even though I have documented mental health issues (anxiety, panic attacks, depression), I could not walk from an epidural and I had developed a clot in my leg from labour. Once I retained the ability to walk later in the night, I had severe back pain from the labour so was struggling to move from that. So I was left alone at night after just giving birth to care for my baby who would not breastfeed and I could barely move. I was told to call for the midwives when I needed but every time I did, they were getting increasingly agitated. I must say, trying to just survive that night, I am extremely traumatised from this. 

The next day, I did everything to get out of their care even with my conditions. My partner came in super early to help me get out of bed and help with the baby. The lady I was sharing a room with had her older child ripping around her area and opening my curtain while I needed to be examined and was trying to feed my child. I Was given "stronger pain medication" to help with all the pain but was not told what it was which led to me having a reaction to Tramadol (would not have taken this if I knew what it was) once I got home to the point I was screaming and hallucinating. 

The problem is I honestly had only heard good things about the midwives on the ward but I am traumatised from my experience there. It is such an incredible shame that local south west women do not have a choice really except to have their baby at Bunbury hospital. If me and my partner ever decide to have another child, a big consideration would have to be whether or not we would want to go through this trauma again at the hospital. This experience contributed significantly to my PPD and PPA and has greatly disturbed my partner as well. I have missed out on a lot by not having a good experience at the hospital and I am very disappointed.