"Maternity aftercare"

I had my baby at Bunbury hospital and had to be delivered via emergency c-section. The quality of care I received while in labour was very good and supportive. However, there were complications for both my baby and I through the surgery and while my baby was cared for well, it felt like my treatment went by the way side.

I suffered from a large blood loss and struggled to stay conscious after the delivery. The nurses who looked after me during recovery, I felt, treated me with frustration while I drifted in and out of consciousness and I was told by my partner that, I understand, one of the nurses was whinging about me actively not producing my own colostrum. I was in and out of consciousness at the time and suffered from a mass blood loss.

When I woke the next day still trying to gain function of my body back from the spinal block, I felt the nurse pressured me out of bed and left me to shower in the bathroom on my own while I had limited function of my legs, stiff and sore from the surgery and still had a catheter in. When I called them back in to help me it seemed they weren’t very obliging.

Meanwhile my baby was very unwell in special care. There was very little communicated to me about what was happening with my baby and the concerns over their health. A doctor didn’t speak to us until my baby's third day earth side. A week later we found out they were being treated for sepsis during the hospital report reading at our GP and they were concerned my baby wouldn’t make it through their first night. We weren’t told any of this while in hospital.

We were both in hospital for 5 days. In this time, I felt like I was left to care for myself trying to recover from a c-section and large haemorrhage which resulted in me becoming anaemic a couple weeks later due to being left untreated. I received no help on my first night alone with my baby, not having the buzzer answered for more than an hour, relying on them to provide the formula because my milk hadn’t come through.

In my opinion, the general care I received from the nurses and midwives was terrible and lacked responsibility and professionalism. I believe it was very clear they were under the pump but I felt they didn’t show any compassion either and made me feel like I was a burden.

The only exception to my experience was 2 midwives (one being a student) during my initial stage of labour. 1 very special midwife who looked after me for a few hours on the second day, I felt they were so gentle and compassionate, and a special midwife who not only looked after my baby from the first night in special care but was a blanket of reassurance to me and my partner in the first 2 days.

Very disappointing that out of all the staff who look after you in hospital, I felt only 4 delivered good care. In my opinion, the care offered from the visiting midwife service was terrible. I felt judged, unsupported, worried and completely intruded on throughout the entire service.