More women come forward with ‘nightmare’ birth experiences

More women have come forward with “nightmare” birth experiences after a first-time mum revealed she was forced to have her baby on the side of the road.

One woman told the Herald she resorted to screaming at a doctor while in the throes of labour to get a Caesarean section for the delivery of her twins. Another woman lost three litres of blood and thought she was going to die after doctors earlier refused to induce her due to staffing shortages.

Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall said it was essential all patients were listened to.

“I’m aware that this has been a longstanding issue, especially in women’s health. I raise this regularly in my engagements with the sector and I have asked for the bias that women face in the health system to be a focus of the women’s health strategy.”

A 24-year-old woman, who gave birth to twins at a North Island hospital two weeks ago, said she had been very clear she wanted the babies delivered by Caesarean section because she was worried about complications.

Her labour ended up being fast and her cervix dilated from 5cm to 8cm in 10 minutes.

At this point a female doctor told her she needed to push the first baby out naturally and then have a Caesarean section for the second one, the woman said.

“She was so pushy ... I essentially had to yell at her and tell her no,” the woman said.

“I felt like they didn’t believe that I knew what I wanted. They had their own agenda, that’s what it felt like, and she really didn’t want to listen to what I wanted.”

Eventually, doctors in the room agreed to perform a Caesarean section and both babies were delivered. They are healthy and spending their first night at home after two weeks in the special care unit.

Verrall said people accessing maternity services and their whānau deserved to be treated with dignity, and respect, and should be involved in decision-making about the help and support they receive.

“Across the women’s health portfolio our approach is to give women more control of their care and improving services so that they better meet all people’s needs. This is why we have rolled out a telehealth early medical abortion service, and are making system changes to enable self-screening for cervical cancer.”

Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall. Photo / NZME

A 29-year-old woman, who is a nurse, gave birth to a baby girl in a different North Island hospital in October last year.

Her pregnancy went smoothly but as the 40-week mark came and went with no sign of labour starting any time soon, she was sore, anxious, and had had enough.

When she asked to be induced, she was told she was low-risk and would have to wait until she was 42 weeks pregnant because there weren’t enough staff at the hospital. The woman felt like she had been “brushed off”.

Then her waters started leaking at 41 weeks and five days, so the decision was made to induce her earlier.

She later gave birth to a baby girl but soon after she was born doctors realised the umbilical cord had snapped off the placenta, the woman said.

The doctors rushed into action to get the woman to the operating theatre. She saw their panicked faces and thought she was going to die.

She felt the situation could have been prevented if she was induced when she had wanted to be.

“The next six to 12 weeks I spent recovering with poor haemoglobin levels, swelling, trauma, and mental burnout from thinking I was going to die.”

The parents of a baby who was born on the side of the road after they were sent home from hospital during labour, say they feel let down by a system they thought they could trust. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

She stressed she received excellent care after she was finally induced but still felt angry and robbed.

“I missed out on what was supposed to be the best time of my life welcoming a new baby into the world. Those first precious weeks I spent angry and tired and washed out and I wanted to put my child up for adoption because I didn’t bond with her until she was 4 months old.

“It was just a nightmare.”

National’s health spokesman Dr Shane Reti said the health workforce shortage was dangerous in these types of situations.

“The whole purpose of a birth plan is to be prepared – you find out the drive time to the delivery room and pack your hospital bags. All this goes out the window when the health system is in crisis and under pressure.

“There is clearly a shortage of midwives, yet Labour has refused to put them on the straight-to-residency pathway, just like nurses. It astounds me that Labour has not changed this immigration setting yet despite many harrowing pregnant mother stories that we have heard this year.”