Share review of Diana Princess of Wales Hospital

Diana Princess of Wales Hospital 2021-05-21 Person 3 5 0

I was denied any gas and air or pethidine despite multiple requests for any of it as I was deemed not far enough along in labour to require it, although I was unaware that there had to be a specific stage of labour to qualify for the use of pain relief as that was not the case in my previous labours of my other children. my husband was also asked to leave immediately after I arrived (which that part I understand due to covid at the time) but all communication with him to keep him informed was left down to me while going through contractions and then I was told to tell him to go home rather than wait outside as it would be hours (all said without me being checked for progress) which I did, believing that the professionals knew what was going on. I was left to try to have a bath as an alternative to the requested pain relief, so when I was on the other side of the room getting my bits ready for said bath, my waters broke during a particularly painful contraction and as I was completely on my own in the room at the time, I was left to try and slip and slide my way to the bed to press the call button (which could of been handled so much better if I had my husband there with me for assistance) and then within 10 minutes of that happening, my daughter was born. so again, it was left up to me to phone my husband and have the awful task of telling him that his daughter was already born and he had missed everything, which you can imagine was not the most pleasant conversation to have on top of going through the whole process alone, and not once was it ever offered for someone to call him on my behalf by anyone at all at any point of my labour. the only reason i haven't given a worse score is because of the lovely and much improved treatment i received from the point after birth until my discharge, which i cant fault at all and has counted towards a better score than I could truly give.

offered or assisted in contacting my husband when needed to keep him in the loop instead of leaving it down to me, or even better, let my husband stay with me as if he was allowed to be there once 'established labour' occurred, what would of been the difference for a couple more hours, especially considering either way he wouldn't of been/wasn't allowed to leave the hospital room due to the covid restrictions in place and then maybe he wouldn't of missed his daughters birth and I wouldn't be filled with unending guilt for not recognising my quick labour progress sooner and giving him half a chance to get to the hospital in time, and that is something I will have to carry around with me for the rest of my life.