‘Giving start on the NHS was so traumatic that I could by no means have one other baby – maternity care have to be fastened’
When Jorden and Vicky Eadon-Guest found out they were expecting a baby, it was the end of a long road to starting a family. “It had been a difficult journey but my pregnancy was a dream,” says Vicky, 41.
The C-section at Worcestershire Royal Hospital went well – apart from a trainee struggling to administer the epidural “five or six times” – and baby Isla was born safely. At 11pm, Jorden was told he had to leave for the night. “The midwife came and said she couldn’t find an obs (observations) machine but that I looked all right,” Vicky, a head of marketing, says.
Still bleeding and feeling increasingly unwell, with a restless newborn, Vicky buzzed for help all night, but was only answered once. “When I stood up there was a lot of blood, on the bed, on the floor… I felt shaky, like I could fall.” When 36-year-old Jorden, a marketing manager, came back the next morning he found Vicky very hot and dizzy. Yet despite this they were discharged – without any pain relief as the pharmacy was closed. Days later, I was readmitted to hospital via A&E, suffering from a severe infection and internal bleeding, and needing intravenous antibiotics,” Vicky says.
Two recent reports reflect the growing concerns of parents we have spoken to. Last week, the damning Ockenden Maternity Review into maternity services at the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust revealed more than 500 babies and mothers died or suffered avoidable harm in the biggest maternity scandal in NHS history.
And this week the findings from a maternity inquiry by Baroness Amos, which looked at evidence submitted by The Dad Shift, which advocates for fathers and non-birthing parents, revealed maternity staffing pressures and shortages leaving women and babies in danger. The investigation examined 10,000 pieces of evidence over 12 NHS trusts and spoke to 450 families and 38 hospital executives.
Midwife Donna Ockenden’s report heard from a further 2,500 patients and 800 staff in Nottingham. Vicky and Jorden are just two of hundreds of new parents who gave evidence for Baroness Amos’s maternity inquiry. The Dad Shift says hundreds of parents told them that failings in maternity services are denying mothers valuable support from their partners at critical stages of childbirth and aftercare.
In our joint investigation, none of the parents we spoke to were bereaved, but many had suffered serious health and mental-health consequences, with partners saying concerns were ignored. “Had they just done a blood test Vicky would never have been as severely unwell as she was,” Jorden says. “We are lucky she went back into hospital when she did. Had she not, the consequences are not worth thinking of.”
One passage in Baroness Amos’s report reads: “Fathers, partners and parents described similar experiences of being overlooked and dismissed when trying to support or advocate for their partner, baby or loved one. For many families, having a baby is a shared experience, but this was not always reflected in care delivered.”
She also spoke of poor communication experienced as a “lack of compassion”. Rose Keeler-Schaffeler, a 33-year-old composer from South London, and partner Daniel, 41, had their baby Percy at King’s College Hospital, London. Rose says she felt pressured into having a c-section. Afterwards she says she was left lying unattended in pain and bloody sheets.
“They said I had to have a C-section or my baby would be in danger,” Rose told us. “When we asked to look at our notes after, that wasn’t the case. I was basically coerced. I was left in bloody sheets so I took some off an empty bed, which caused a healthcare assistant to shout at me. For a while, I was still having vivid flashbacks. Percy is two now but I’m not sure I could go through that again.”
Nathan, 34, a pastoral coach and his teacher wife, Megan Barnes, 31, had their son Phoenix, one, at Leeds General Infirmary last year. After an emergency c-section, Megan and Phoenix contracted a life-threatening infection and were hospitalised. “Megan was in labour for days,” Nathan says. “One of the reasons was that we were waiting for a consultant. A midwife was trying to attach an electrode through my wife’s cervix on to our baby’s head to check his heartbeat, and wouldn’t stop when I said she was hurting my wife. It felt brutal. Twice I watched my wife collapse and didn’t know if she and our son were going to die. It was horrific.”
Baroness Amos’s report also lifted the lid on “discrimination embedded in the system”, including misogyny, towards people of colour, people with disabilities, and to LGBTQ+ families. Laura-Rose Thorogood, 40, CEO of Make Birth Better and LGBT Mummies, has four children, aged 12, eight, five and two. “The way you are treated wholly depends where you live,” she says. “People are experiencing micro-aggressions, unconscious and conscious bias, during what should be a really special time.”
Alex Lloyd Hunter, 37, co-founder of The Dad Shift, says involving partners more fully can help ease the pressure on maternity services. “The way they are run means a lot of partners are being told we are not needed,” Alex says. “This impacts not just women but also future relationships. It’s sending a message that babies are not our concern. Birth can end up being the point at which patterns are first set.”
Dr Elizabeth Garthwaite, current interim chief medical officer at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We offer our sincere apologies to Megan for the distress she and her family experienced. We have investigated Megan and her family’s complaints and recognise they did not receive the high standard of care they deserved. We are closely reviewing the recommendations from the Nottingham report and Baroness Amos’s report. We are committed to working openly and honestly with the independent review into maternity and neonatal services in Leeds.”
A King’s College Hospital spokesperson said: “We would like to say sorry again to Ms Keeler-Schaffeler. Members of our maternity team met with her to hear more about her concerns, and sadly, it was clear that some aspects of her care fell far below the high standards we set ourselves.”
Dr Baylon Kamalarajan, associate chief medical officer for family health at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said the Trust was unable to comment on individual cases. “We are very sorry to hear about this patient’s experience and apologise if any aspect of her care fell short of the standards we strive to deliver. We recognise how important it is women feel listened to, supported, and cared for at a significant time, and we take concerns like these seriously.”
The government reacted to the reviews by announcing the first ever maternity commissioner, to “speak up for women, babies and families, a national action plan by Christmas, and a £41million investment to improve safety”. Nathan and other parents we spoke to are worried this doesn’t go far enough. Nathan says: “A maternity commissioner can’t tackle all of this.”
Rose says she welcomes Baroness Amos’s report. “But it could go further,” she says. “Birth trauma should be prevented, not managed afterwards. Healthcare professionals should be expected to treat women and families with the same compassion and dignity that we rightly expect at the end of life.”
