If you don’t like it, go private: what my maternity clinic said over scans delay
After a raft of prenatal check-ups were cancelled because of Covid staff shortages, one mother asked how other mums fared. The replies shocked her.
Alison, 38, gave birth to her son in June 2021 at a busy London hospital.
“We had exemplary care during delivery, and the midwives looking after me during my antenatal care were likewise fantastic,” she recalls.
“However, I didn’t see a midwife face-to-face between my nine-week intake appointment and my 30th week of pregnancy. Then I saw nobody again until I was 34 weeks pregnant, and the next time I was seen was at 38 weeks, even though you’re supposed to be seen weekly at that stage.”
At Alison’s two-week postpartum check-up, she had to have her stitches examined in a chair as no other facilities were free.
“The ward was so full they’d had to close the birth centre; labour and delivery was full, and I met two women labouring in the early stages of their induction in the hallway. The midwives that came to do home visits were rushed and left me in tears every time,” she says.
When another mother found she was suffering from early pregnancy malaise, she reluctantly decided to go back to the London hospital where she had given birth eight years before.
Her high-risk twin pregnancy had ended in premature birth at 24 weeks and tragedy – with one baby dying after a three-month battle in intensive care. Throughout her antenatal journey, crucial appointments had been cancelled due to staffing issues, with the result that nobody picked up on early signs of premature labour, until it was too late for intervention.
Her hopes of receiving better care this time, assuming the trust would be aware of my history, evaporated quickly. By nearly 15 weeks of pregnancy, I had still not been seen by anyone, with text messages supposed to inform me of appointments failing to arrive.
When she queried why I had been given a date for a scan two weeks after the latest possible date such a screening could give a diagnosis of chromosomal abnormality, a clinic receptionist told me I should go private if I didn’t like my appointments. A complaint triggered an apology from the trust’s chief executive months later for protracted problems in the booking process, as well as an apology from the deputy head of midwifery for the receptionist’s “inappropriate” advice.
Source: The Guardian, 30 January 2022