November 17th, 2014 - My water broke! I was about to have my first baby. We arrived at the hospital and I was 2cm dilated. I was in pain, I didn't know how to handle the pain. As soon as I got there I was pushed into having an epidural. I felt like that was what everyone wanted so I did it. I laboured the rest of the day in bed, feeling nothing as I was numb. Around 4pm I was finally 10 cm and ready to push. I was pushing as hard as I could but my body stopped contracting which was making it super frustrating when I kept hearing, "Push, come on you need to push!" when I was pushing. Once they realized I stopped contracting, they gave me a dose of meds to start them up again. As they are doing this my nurse is called out of the room and comes in and tells the doctor she has to go tend to another emergency birth. I was then told "push or I'm pulling this baby out of you". I bawled through my entire pushing, I was so frustrated with the lack of support with this being my first time giving birth.
After she was born, within 3 minutes they took her to the NICU where I wasn't allowed to hold her or touch her. She was 5 weeks early but was healthy! She weighed 5lbs 5oz. She was in the NICU for two weeks, two weeks was so long in my mind! I was extremely upset with being pushed into an epidural, with how the staff treated me during the pushing phase and the fact they wouldn't let me hold her.
April 4th, 2017 was the day our son was born. Let's go back, March 21st I went in for the regular 20 week check up. The ultrasound tech went on throughout the ultrasound showing me the baby, she was so happy. She asked me to empty my bladder and while I did that she went to talk to the doctor to see what he wanted to do because she couldn't get a measurement she said. She came back and asked me if I wanted her to get my husband that the doctor was coming to talk to me. Of course I said yes. She comes back and says, "Your husband wants to stay with the kids" (we had foster kids with us). The doctor comes in and says, "Your baby has no kidneys". I asked what this meant and he says, "Your baby will not survive outside of the womb". I started to cry, I was devastated. He says, "Someone will be in touch to go over the scan further". I was told this information on a Friday. I was told by myself while my husband was in the waiting area because he thought I was finding out the gender. I had to go out and tell my husband our baby was going to die. When I asked my husband why he didn't come in he said the ultrasound tech asked him if he wanted to come see the baby .... I was so upset that she didn't tell him he needed to come in. Instead she led him on to believe everything was fine. My husband didn't come in 'cause he didn't want to know the gender.
Fast forward to April 3rd... We were induced to have our baby because he was not going to survive and I was in a lot of pain physically because there was no amniotic fluid around him (he had Potters Syndrome). The male doctor that gave me the first dose of induction mess was super nice! I began the induction at 11:30am. Every four hours after that I was given another tablet to get my body into labour. He gave me two doses of induction and then shift change happened. The female resident or doctor, whatever she was, was so rough! She shoved her hand inside me so hard it hurt so bad. She was not gentle at all. Around 7:30pm my contractions picked up. As I laboured it became really painful. Induced contractions are much worse than when your body goes into labour on its own. The only time I ever saw a doctor or nurse was when it was time for another dose of drugs to induce. I was about to say goodbye to my child and their was no support at all. Around 11pm I was in absolute agony! I asked to be checked and it was like I was a burden to the doctor. She had such an attitude with me. I got to the point where I just cried.
Around 2:30am on April 4th I paged and the nurse came in ... She asked what was wrong and I said I couldn't do it anymore. I was in so much pain. She got the doctor and the doctor checked and I was only 3cm dilated. She said I wasn't ready. I felt like I needed to poop, she told me to get up and go to the bathroom but I couldn't. She gave me such a hard time because I couldn't get up. I felt the urge to push and she told me it was not time yet that I needed to stop. I couldn't. Our son was born at 2:50am ... I was only 3cm dilated. He was a very small baby as I was only 22 weeks and 5 days. The doctor was awful! She had no compassion for what we were going through. KGH staff were awful when it came to losing our child. They have no compassion or support. I felt like us losing our child was a burden to them all.
January 9th, 2018 - We went to the hospital because I was having contractions at 31 weeks. We were expecting our rainbow baby. We arrived and met with our midwife who was fantastic! She checked me and I was 2cm dilated and 90% effaced. A couple hours later I was 5cm and she said they wouldn't be able to stop the labour that we were having our baby. I was terrified! It was too early. During the assessment they realized that baby was breech. I was being told that I had to have a c-section. Having a c-section was not part of my plan, the thought terrified me! I was upset and not comprehending much other than I had to have a c-section and I didn't want to.
After finally accepting I wasn't going to give birth vaginally I was taken for a c-section. I expressed my fears and my fears came true. During the c-section I felt it all. I felt the cut, I felt them inside me, I felt them stitching me back up. I felt the awful, awful pain. They weren't taking me seriously. They told me there was no way I was feeling it, that it was all in my head. Well, it wasn't. Because of them I will never birth another baby, I can't watch TV shows that show surgeries, I can't talk about my birth, I can't even touch my stomach without being brought back to that table and feeling the pain I felt.
KGH was an awful hospital for all three of my birth experiences. If I could have gone to another hospital to birth my babies, I would have! KGH needs to learn compassion
I did not complain. I do not feel like I would be heard.
Submitted by Pigion
