Mum told to stop stressing after one of her twins died

A MOTHER was told by a consultant to ‘stop stressing’ after one of her twin babies died, the MPs’ report reveals in a string of harrowing testimonies.

More than 1,300 women who had experienced a traumatic birth shared their distressing stories, with women telling how they were left in bloodied sheets, mocked or shouted at and denied basic needs such as pain relief.

In the worst cases, babies died or were born severely disabled, or mothers were left with life-long injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder, due to ‘negligent care’.

In the 80-page report by the all-party group on birth trauma, one mother shared how she kept calling the hospital for a baby scan, including 44 times in one day, but her concerns were dismissed. It later transpired her baby was experiencing growth restriction, and the baby died during labour.

One woman carrying twins, who went into premature labour at 19 weeks, was initially disbelieved. After she lost the first baby, she wrote: ‘I was told by one of the consultants to stop my crying, calm down and try to save the other baby.

‘His words were, “This baby was dead a long time anyway so you should stop stressing over it and let’s try to save the other one”.’

The other baby also died and years later she is still ‘ traumatised by this whole experience that has left me suicidal’. She added: ‘Animals are treated better than the way we were treated in hospital.’

One woman, describing her post-birth experience, said: ‘My husband was sent home. It was after visiting hours. I was moved to the ward. I could not stand or walk. I had a catheter. I was covered in blood and my own faeces but there was no one to help me wash.

‘A plastic sheet was put on the bed and I lay on it in my filth. Around midnight I was woken up by a woman (I don’t know who she was? A nurse? A midwife?) who reprimanded me for not feeding my baby. He was asleep. I didn’t know what to do and I couldn’t pick him up.

‘I tried to get out of the bed but when she saw I was covered in blood and s*** and hooked up to a catheter, she told me to get back in and said she’d hand him to me. I didn’t know how to breastfeed. She told me if I didn’t get it, she would take my son and give him a bottle. I felt like I was failing at mothering and I’d only been a mother for a few hours.’

Another mother shared that after an emergency caesarean she developed sepsis and was put on an antibiotic drip, further restricting her mobility after major surgery.

Her husband was sent home and her baby, having been taken away and given antibiotics for suspected meningitis, was brought back.

‘I was not only expected to try to calm her but also change her as she had been sick and was soiled on arrival,’ she said.

‘Staff pushed her in to the end of the bed, told me to clean the baby up because she’d been sick and was soiled and walked off. I could hear the staff all outside the bay sat at the nurses’ station laughing and planning on ordering a Chinese takeaway before they closed.’

Another mother who turned down paracetamol because she thought it was insufficient pain relief says the midwife responded by throwing the drugs in the sink.

‘I was literally left lying on the ground in pain wanting to die as the pain was so intense and unbearable,’ she said.

During her 36-hour labour, she was also denied an epidural because her platelets were too low. She remembers being violently sick and jolting from the pain of having her waters broken. She sustained a third-degree tear.

‘Without an epidural the pain was intense, but the midwife nonetheless chastised me for flinching in pain when he had a go at stitching me up when in fact surgery was necessary.’

Another described reporting her concerns about her baby looking ‘yellow’ to a midwife.

She told the report: ‘She told me I was being overly anxious and he was fine. She wrote in my notes that I was an overly anxious mother and my baby was NOT jaundiced. My husband intervened and a doctor confirmed my baby was jaundiced and he was treated.’

Highlighting a potential cover-up, the mum said: ‘The next day the page written by the midwife had been torn out.’

The overwhelming majority of written submissions referred to a lack of kindness or compassion on the part of the health professionals looking after them.

Many wrote of ringing the bell to call for help and having no one come.

‘I was covered in blood and faeces’