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Kettering General Hospital 2023-11-16 Person 1 5 0

I had a simply awful labour experience at KGH. The department was understaffed and the midwife leading my birth actually explained that her main experience was of community midwifery and that she felt underqualified. She had however, been put in charge of a student and did a woeful job of balancing my experience with that of the student. She allowed the student to undertake unnecessary, painful and lengthy examinations of me for her own gain and completely disregarded my pain and panic. Throughout the birth, choices were made without my involvement or consent including from the outset, the immediate forced removal of my own TENS machine, which was not justified or necessary. Midwives and staff on the unit in general disregarded my pain relief choices and also disallowed me from remaining mobile with no justification- their behaviour was marked by disinterest and unkindness. The number of errors made in my care overall, there were many, were later explained to me by a representative from the hospital at a debrief appointment and I did receive an apology, including for the fact that my birth experience almost certainly would not have ended with a c-section had better choices been made by the negligent, under-experienced midwife. The hospital have acknowledge that their care, in my case, was wholly inadequate and dangerous to both myself and my baby. They have fallen short of amending the record of my birth however, which states a number of incorrect details, including that my baby was taken to ‘special care’ after birth, when he was not. Perhaps he should have been, but the hospital have refused to acknowledge why this error cannot be rectified. I hoped for so much from my birth experience at KGH- I had given birth before, went into my labour physically and mentally prepared and feeling strong- the outcome of the awful experience I endured, the processes and decisions that were inflicted upon me, have left me suffering the effects of PTSD on a daily basis. I have undertaken a lengthy process of therapy to support my recovery but still have flashbacks to the many painful and humiliating errors and basic acts of unkindness that I experienced. I do hope that this is not representative of all care at KGH and I’m sure that on different days and with different midwives women have very different experiences. This was my experience though so it does seem luck of the draw and this should never be the case.