The stories below are just a few of those we have received from women.
All the women here have very kindly allowed us to post their experiences
on our site because they want to help other women feel less isolated.
They also believe that by making their stories public, they can help
us identify the types of maternity practices which create traumatic
experiences.
Caesarean
Section |
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Emma explains
how her daughter’s birth twelve years ago still affects her
today. |
|
Anne's induction
resulted in an emergency caesarean section. |
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Angela's induction
ends up as an emergency caesarean section. |
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Rosie's homebirth
ended in an emergency caesarean section. |
|
Carla had
her first baby at 19 years old and suffered a placental abruption.
She ended up having an emergency c-section and received terrible
aftercare. |
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Christine's homebirth
ended in an emergency caesarean section. |
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Amy,
the intense pain and fear that Amy suffered during her long labour
which resulted in an emergency section has left her deeply traumatised. |
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Alison was
not listened to by midwives, was in terrible pain, found gas and
air unhelpful and was totally exhausted. Alison is deeply upset
and suffers nightmares about the birth. |
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Jessica was
denied pain relief with no justification. She is now pregnant again. |
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Lucy's induction
resulted in a caesarean section and poor postnatal care. |
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Poor communication and unsympathetic staff left Sonia deeply
traumatised as a result of her caesarean delivery. |
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Jo desperately
wanted to avoid a caesarean but she was treated badly by a few
unsympathetic and overstretched staff who did not respect her wishes
or treat her with respect. |
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Michaela was
operated on without an effective anaesthetic and the notes made
no reference to the incident. The affect on her life has been appalling
and it has made her frightened to have another baby. |
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Krystle had
a caesarean and suffered an internal bleed. She was treated particularly
badly by one midwife. |
 |
Emma had
a terrible experience during her caesarean section which was carried
out without proper analgesia. She was told she was 'imagining'
the pain by a nurse, despite the anaesthetist saying the analgesia
was not right. She would like to contact women who have been through
similar experiences. |
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Vicky had
to have an emergency C-section after her baby was found to be breech,
despite being told at 34, 36 and 38 weeks that her baby's head
was engaged. She received appalling care both during and after
delivery and also suffered a massive hemorrhage 5 weeks after the
birth. |
|
Cheryl had
rhesus disease during her fifth pregnancy and when her titre level
rose to 67, her baby became very ill. She received appalling
care and was very traumatised by her experience. |
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Carey talks
about her 'most wanted baby' and caesarean delivery, she felt very
scared and not listened too. She suffered terrible guilt afterwards
and did not bond with her baby for 7 months. (NEW STORY) |
Forceps |
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Grace is
haunted by her forceps delivery and episiotomy 15 years on. |
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Emily had
a long labour resulting in an emergency forceps delivery after
her baby's heart rate dropped. She also had a large episiotomy
and a failed epidural. |
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Sonia suffered
appalling pain and severe perineal trauma. It has put her off having
more children. |
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Anna's traumatic
birth experiences affected her for many years and eventually led
to the breakdown of her marriage. |
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Mel was
withheld pain relief for no reason and spoken to in an appalling
manner. Mel is also a lesbian and feels her partner was ignored
and not kept informed. |
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Yvonne had
a very long latent phase with very poor pain relief resulting in
a forceps delivery. |
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Hannah explains
how staff shortages led to her having a terrible experience during
the birth of her baby. She feels strongly that women should not
be made to feel guilty when they have problems breastfeeding. |
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Evangelia felt
she had lost control of the situation when she had to have a forceps
delivery after a failed ventouse. Problems with breastfeeding left
her devastated. |
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Lyn's experience
of traumatic birth has lived with her for many years. She wasn’t
listened to or involved in any of the decision making about the
birth nor was there time to explain the possible implications of
the traumatic birth on the baby. |
Ventouse |
|
Lucy’s husband
was initially turned away when she arrived at hospital. Staff were ‘too
busy’ to give her pain relief for an agonising birth. Her
baby was poorly when born but communication and support after the
birth was terrible. By contrast, staff at the Special care unit
were wonderful. |
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Annie's son
was born by ventouse. |
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Rachel wanted
a natural birth but was not listened to and received appalling
care. |
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Neena received
appalling care, had a ventouse delivery and suffered a retained
placenta. |
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Sian's baby
was occipito posterior, she had a ventouse delivery and suffered
a breast abscess six weeks after the birth. |
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Dee was
ignored by staff and diagnosed with PN Depression following the
birth of her daughter. She is now pregnant again. |
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Briony felt
forced to have an epidural she didn't want and felt humiliated
by staff, she went on to develop PTSD. |
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Karen was
put on a syntocinon drip and had a long labour resulting in a ventouse
delivery. She suffered post traumatic stress and depression. |
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Paula was
slapped during labour by the midwife and has experienced long term
agonising pain and faecal incontinence following childbirth. |
SCBU/NNICU |
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Jo's baby
ended up in SCBU after her induction and emergency caesarean. She
explains how she has come to terms with this. |
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Susan's son
was born early. She had problems with the removal of the placenta. |
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Chantal was
diabetic and the traumatic birth of her first child made her insist
on a subsequent caesarean. She believes that staff need to be more
sympathetic and understanding. |
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Lizzy suffered
symphysis pubis dysfunction and her baby was admitted to SCBU.
This story is a letter of complaint and the outcome. |
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Wanda gave
birth to her daughter at 27 weeks. She was not listened to and
told by staff that she 'wasn't in labour' even though she was. |
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Karen's baby
was born as the result of an induction. Karen was not listened
to and her baby's speedy delivery resulted in an entirely avoidable
injury. |
|
Briony went
into labour at 27 weeks and her baby spent 9 weeks in SCBU. Briony
was left very traumatised by events which included having her cervix
stitched. |
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Sharon's baby
weighed 11lb 12½oz and had to spend 3 very traumatic weeks
in SCBU after failing to breathe for 8 minutes after delivery. |
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Alison was
expecting a very large baby and the birth was very traumatic resulting
in the baby suffering shoulder distocia. |
Other
PTSD |
|
Kim had
Group Strep B and was induced. She suffered appalling care and
her requests for pain relief were ignored (PDF 69kb). |
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Sue was
in labour for 5 days and suffered so badly with PTSD that she tried
to kill herself and her baby. |
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Lynda is
pregnant again and terrified. In previous labours, she was left
in terrible pain and the trauma affected her relationship with
her partner. |
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Louise had
many obstetric complications but her treatment left her feeling
degraded and her postnatal care was appalling. She is worried about
future pregnancies. |
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Tina's insensitive
treatment during an operative delivery and poor aftercare left
her deeply traumatised. |
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Tracy suffered
terrible psychological problems following a traumatic birth which
began with an early induction. She suffered lack of continuity
of care, privacy, unendurable pain and worst of all a general lack
of kindness and understanding from the overstretched staff. |
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Mel experienced
hours of agonising labour before she got the pain relief she requsted.
She finally had a caesarean section and felt very depressed after
the birth. She tried to talk to the Health Visitor about how depressed
she felt and was told not to talk about it to her or she would
have to recommend the baby was taken into care. |
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Alicia suffered
a traumatic experience as a result of very poor communication.
Her story illustrates that birth related PTSD can occur even when
there has not been an emergency or prolonged or difficult labour. |
