Naomi
** TRIGGER WARNING. THIS BLOG POST INCLUDES DISCUSSION OF TRAUMATIC AND DIFFICULT BIRTHING EXPERIENCES WHICH SOME READERS MAY FIND DISTRESSING **
I’d kept the details of Nate’s birth to myself, but silence won’t help. We need to complain, and complain loudly.
All this IG drama has had people bandying about the stat that black women are 5x more likely to die as a complication of birth than white women. I say bandied about, because to a lot of people it’s just a sad fact that is said and then forgotten about, but for many black women this is their experience. Racial bias within health service is contributing to the death of black women through stereotyping and dismissiveness.
I’d kept the details of Nate’s birth to myself, but silence won’t help. We need to complain, and complain loudly. Sharing isn’t for everyone, but please look at @fivexmore_ @birthbetter @_prosperitys @birth_trauma_association_uk and the MBRRACE report for more info and help on mentally recovering.
I was admitted onto the antenatal ward for an induction, but started having contractions at 12ish without intervention. I was told that I would get taken down to labour ward when I was further along and to keep active, so I paced the halls around the midwives station for hours. At around 7, during one of my circuits around the midwives station, I heard the midwife on the phone say that I still had a long while to go because I was so quiet through the contractions- even though I have a chronic pain condition that has taught me to handle my pain well. I was given paracetamol for the pain at 8ish, but I was still on the antenatal ward until I started to feel pressure and then I was finally put in a wheelchair and taken down to a birthing room. I only had time to get the drip in for my strep b antibiotics before my waters broke and Nate was born 23 minutes later.
After Nate was born, a student midwife on her 1st placement checked that my uterus had contracted, and the midwife supervising her took her word for it and didn’t check herself. I was moved onto the postnatal ward where I started bleeding heavily and had pain on my right side. I complained, but no-one checked the pain or my bleeding and I was discharged 12 hours after giving birth. 2 hours later, I was blue lighted back into hospital because my uterus hadn’t contracted, I had retained products and I was haemorrhaging so badly I was using a handtowel as a maternity pad.
My mental health has been affected and I have a long journey to get over what happened, but I’m one of the lucky ones, because I was repeatedly told that if I had haemorrhaged overnight then I wouldn’t be here.
Naomi
