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Darlington Memorial Hospital 2017-03-01 Person 1 5 0

I was very disappointed about my labour experience on this occasion. This was my second child and I have been left feeling very negatively about the birth and it is certainly something i would not like to repeat again. I am grateful that my baby arrived safely however, the experience was dreadful. I stayed at home labouring for the first part of my labour and arrived at dmh when my contractions were three minutes apart and very intense to the point i was unable to walk properly or use the toilet myself. I was left for some time in a lot of pain and was trying to use my own tens machine however this had stopped being effective. I asked if i could have some pain relief and was told i would need to wait until i had been examined. This took some time, I was told i was only 2cm and would probably need to go home. I explained i would not be able to walk and requested a commode. By this point i was vomitting regularly, they offered tramadol after i refused codiene as it would not have been effective. I vomitted this up and despite my requests was told that i could not have any gas and air. I was under consultant and explained that i had ME and my concerns would be that if my pain was not managed i would posisbly be too tired to deliver and end up having an emergency section. I felt at no point were my concerns heard. I tried to explain that the pain was so intense and i was asking to die and very frightened at this point. I went into hospital at 10.30pm and this was after 12.30pm. i was only ever examined once at this point. They gave me pethidine and advised an induction the following day if they had enough staff available. I was confused as i kept saying i was in labour and the baby was coming. They just kept telling me to rest and get my head down for a few hours. This was impossible due to the contractions and pain. My husband and I were left for hours and in the end i shouted to my husband that I needed to push, still no gas and air or offering of any epidural etc despite requests on my birth plan due to my fatigue. My husband ran to get staff after a heavy bleed/show and myself needing to push, they were not ready for a baby coming and were telling me not to push unless i definitely needed to while they ran around in panic getting towels heated etc and baby arrived soon after. If any of the staff had re examined me after an hour or two or had listened to what i was trying to tell them about my body I could have used gas and air and been more calm and managed. It was a very negative experience as i felt staff did not believe what i was telling them and was made to feel that i was just being over sensitive to the pain. What would have helped would have been staff talking me through the later phase of labour and telling me my thoughts of wanting to die, and giving up etc were perfectly normal at this transition stage in labour they didnt do that as they didnt listen to how i was feeling during the labour, things obviously progressed quickly but i knew from admission that i was going to deliver soon and had tried to tell staff that in my previous labour i have dilated at a quicker rate. Staff really need to listen to mothers. I could not fault the post natal ward for their support but this was very different on the labour ward.