"My labour/birth at hospital"

I was admitted to Bunbury hospital due to a hindwater leak (ongoing for a week before I realised) requiring antibiotics. I was also group b strep positive. The original plan was to have a natural/water birth at another hospital, I ended up having multiple interventions (gas, morphine, epidural, induction, episiotomy and catheter) and had to give birth on my back.

I felt very pressured to agree to an induction by the first obstetrician that was overseeing us, I feel that they were aggressive and lacked bedside manner, and that the stress from these interactions resulted in me not going into labour spontaneously in the time we allowed for me to make a decision.

During my labour, I slipped in the shower and dislocated my coccyx (this was not picked up until I had been complaining for a day about pain in my tailbone), due to a midwife moving a towel from underneath me while I was changing positions (this was one of my coping mechanisms for the pain). I feel that more communication was needed in this instance, and I think the midwife should not have done this without a response from me as I was in the middle of a contraction and in too much pain to talk. The coccyx is still giving me considerable pain a few months later despite ongoing physio therapy and seeing a chiropractor and I believe this could have been avoided.

As a result of all of the drugs given to me for pain relief during and after labour, I was very confused and it seemed my baby was also born very sleepy. Being a first time mother, I did not know how often I needed to feed them and let them go the whole first day without feeding as my baby was asleep and no one explained it to me. A note was placed under the crib which I had no idea about until later and I only remember seeing student nurses throughout my stay. Family members later said they thought it was odd but didn’t comment at the time to avoid offending me. My baby developed jaundice and lost more than 10% of their birth weight which resulted in a longer hospital stay and more stress.

The room I was staying in added to my stress even further, I had two roommates in the time I stayed at Bunbury hospital before being transferred to another hospital. One of them was particularly loud and kept me awake all night with their noise (moving around, talking on the phone, adjusting the bed), and the constant stream of visitors to both of us throughout the day was equally disturbing, particularly the lack of privacy when trying to establish breastfeeding for the first time.

My partner was kicked out of the room just 20 minutes after I got there, however we were not disturbing anyone as we were whispering and did not turn on any lights.

I strongly believe that privacy should be a priority for first time mothers, particularly someone like myself who suffers from anxiety and has a family history of postnatal depression/suicide. During my stay, I had been struggling with my milk supply and was encouraged to pump regularly. After being transferred to the other hospital where my partner was allowed to stay and I had more privacy; and even more so when we arrived home; I suddenly had an oversupply and was dealing with painful engorgement. I believe this is due to being in a more relaxing environment.

I feel very traumatised by this experience and believe it contributed to my experience of postnatal depression.