My Labour Experience

Four years ago, I gave birth to little man, I would love to say that it was a straightforward birth and I was well looked after at the hospital, but the whole story was very different to how I imagined it to be. While I was pregnant, I attended antenatal classes and planned my ideal birth, I wanted to have a water birth as natural as possible. I dreamed of seeing my baby swimming and coming straight to my arms.

However when I was ready to give birth, I didn’t dilate and little man had the umbilical cord around his neck. After being in labour for nearly 24 hours – that’s nearly a whole day of contractions and being in pain – I noticed that the birth wasn’t progressing, even though I was induced, and the baby was getting very stressed, so I asked for a Caesarean. The midwife took no notice and, my unborn child had three heart failures before they finally decided to rush us to theatre and perform an emergency Caesarean.

I was very scared at the time, I thought I could lose my baby and I was very upset I didn’t see him being born as I was put to sleep when doctors were unable to retrieve his heartbeat, so he had to be taken out by an emergency c-section. If I had to do it all again, I wish I could afford to give birth in a private hospital and, I am not alone, according to a survey more than half of all people surveyed want to go private but can’t afford it.

I came out of hospital with my little baby boy, we were both healthy and alive, but I wish I received better treatment from the NHS so I could have a less traumatic birth experience. It has been recently highlighted on the news that £470,000 a day is spent on negligence claims in London alone.

This large amount of money on payouts for medical negligence includes cases where patients have died because of blunders by hospital staff. I was shocked to find out it also includes errors which left patients disabled or doctors failed to spot serious illness.

I am grateful nothing serious happened to us, little man and I went home a few days after the birth, but I will discuss with the doctors and midwife about having a Caesarean for our next baby as soon as I find out I am pregnant. I want to go to hospital knowing exactly what will happen, so hopefully we won’t have any surprises next time.

PR Collaboration, however the opinions expressed on this post are honest and my own.