Compromised

 

Eva-Marie

Thursday, 20 April 2006

I have been struggling with this situation for 5 years now.

My daughters arrival into the world was ruined thanks to the midwives not listening to me and not knowing their stuff.

I was under a Specialist Doctor who I absolutely trusted but when we pleaded for her to be called the midwife thought she had everything under control.

It all started when I got induced at around midday. We asked about the side effects of the drug that they induce you with and the Midwife stated “Oh you dont need to worry about the side effects they hardly ever happen. We then asked again so she told us. 5 minutes after administring the drug I started vomitting etc. The midwife said to us “thank goodness you asked about the side effects”. This wasnt right, you shouldnt have to beg for info.

3pm I was having contractions.

This is my second child and I knew what a contraction felt like. Anyway the next midwife looking after me kept saying “No No you arent having them yet, if you were you would be swearing and cursing by now”. In the medical records she has stated that I am very relaxed still. ( Which I was not).

This same midwife then started letting visitors in to see me (against my will) while I was in labour. My visitors were asking where the baby was and were so surprised when I screamed at them that I hadnt had her yet! In the end my husband went out the door to intersect people before they came in. He should of been with me and not have to worry about such things.

When we asked one visitor how they knew I was in labour they said that the midwife’s husband was his boss and he told him. Absolutely shocking!

Anyway my waters broke at 10pm and we all thought the baby would be born by 11pm. 6am the next morning still no baby, I had had all the drugs on offer and an epidural (which apparently should not of been given to me as my iron levels were so low). Obviously I had a catheter inserted at this time. After pleading and begging with the midwife to call my doctor and crying for them to get me to the toilet and being told “dont be silly, you dont need to go you have a catheter”. In the medical records it states that some blood was showing up in catheter.

They finally got me to the toilet and I really wanted to pee but couldnt, the midwife snickered at me, I then collapsed against the toilet wall and said to her “I give up, I cant do this anymore, I need to go to the toilet, please call my Doctor”.

At 7am my Doctor turned up, by this time my baby was deteriorating inside me. I told my doctor I had to pee, she immediately knew what was wrong, released my bladder and urine came rushing out and the baby also came 10 minutes later.

Why had the midwife not known to do this?

They whisked my baby away as she wasnt breathing right. I then had another midwife start her shift and things didnt get any better. The Doctor told the midwife to leave me for a few minutes before the placenta is removed. The Doctor went to check on the lady next door and stated she will be back to help me with the placenta.

The midwife turned to me and said “theres no need to wait lets get started”. She managed to pulled half the placenta away and when my Doctor came back in she was so mad at the midwife but acted so professionally and tried her best of fix the problem.

I was so exhausted and worried about my baby, it was too hard to speak up for myself. After spending 24 hours in hospital and feeling worse by every passing hour, a nurse (who knew what she was doing) walked into the maternity ward, took one look at me and call my Doctor. My Doctor turned up to see me and my baby straight away and I was rushed into surgery to fix the hemorrhaging that was occurring, no thanks to the impatient midwife the previous day. My husband had to look after our little princess for the first 3 days of her life as I was too ill.

So needless to say the birth of my second child still brings me to tears.

5 years later and my daughter Eva-Marie has Left Hemeplegia to the brain. She has come along way, we have worked real hard and she can walk, talk, etc.

She falls over all the time, gets teased at school and we have now found out she is having seizures.

I am now so very mad.

Mad at myself for not complaining to the hospital.

So mad at the midwifes whom we trusted.

So mad.

Im now ready to fight to get some answers, to speak out.

Maria