I write to you in regards to the current system, in which women today are giving birth. It has come to my attention, that I like many other women in this country, are unhappy with the level of care and the experiences they have undergone, in said system.
I had my first child coming up to 6 months ago, and at the time had minimal knowledge of what I was about to encounter or even what to expect. During my pregnancy I had heard a lot of different stories from different women and the treatment that they were receiving during their 9 months. It suddenly occurred to me that I was not receiving treatment that other women were that was seen as ?routine?. During my whole pregnancy, I had 1 appointment at the hospital, due to continual blunders with appointments.
When time came for me to actually give birth, there were still many things not explained to me. I was told due to meconium in my fluid that I was to be induced. I was extremely nervous about this prospect as this was also something that had no been explained to me. Once seeing my anxiety about the issue, instead of having the procedure properly explained to me I was made to feel ?silly? about being nervous as it was ?just a needle?. Now after giving birth and reading lots of different reports on the drug used I have come to realise that it wasn?t ?just a needle? and should have been taken more seriously and clarified to both myself and my partner. I was also not told until I was in labour that my blood group was A negative, and then had the dangers of what it meant if my daughter had of been a positive, explained to me and my partner. Quite distressing to be honest hearing about this considering the traumatic experience I was already having.
During my labour, I was not given the choice to be active and walk around, I was barely allowed to have a shower, even though I had previously broke my water and needed to shower desperately. As a result of practically being bed ridden, I was forced into an Emergency Caesarean . I feel if I had of had the opportunity to begin with an active labour I would of progressed further than 2 cm dialated and been able to give birth naturally. I honestly feel like I had that experience taken away from me, without a say from my part. That was MY birth not to mention again, my FIRST birth, in which I will never get back.
Something about the current situation needs to be done. Not only was my birthing experience traumatic but the afterwards experience was just as bad. I was given misleading information by midwifes on breastfeeding, which as a result ended my breastfeeding journey at 10 weeks, not to mention the fact that I was bullied by midwifes on a few different occasions which I had to write a report about.
Not only is Pre-natal care important, but what about the labour and birthing process as well as post-natal. Where was the support that was deserved? There needs to be more support and MORE education for the processes and procedures that are carried out within these hospitals. I feel that we are not in control of our own birthing experiences anymore, which should not be the case. We need information and education in our pre natal appointments, we need information and education in our labour and birthing experiences, we need information and education in our post natal care. But most of all, above anything we need rights and respect for the choices and decisions that we make about how we want to birth our children.
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