The Ockenden Report

[Sum1Ls]

https://www.ockendenmaternityreview.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/ockenden-report.pdf

I’ve just read the Ockenden report about maternity services in the Shropshire trust. It makes for terrifying and distressing reading.

Looking back on my my own experiences and those of my daughter and Daughter in Law I’m so relieved we don’t live in the catchment area. By and large, our experiences were good ones, but what these families went through is insupportable.

As ever, in organisations, the culture comes from the top and the arrogance and dismissive attitudes emanate from there.

And I commend the persistence and bravery particularly of the two mothers and families named in the introduction.

[Daisy]

Sum, I haven't read the report yet, but will do so. I think it's going to make for very distressing reading.

[Gemini]

I heard something about that on the radio and TV yesterday Sum1. Very distressing.
Like Daisy I will read the report, after breakfast.

[Gemini]

How awful to live in that area and be pregnant

I saw the mother of the baby Kate, mentioned there, on TV yesterday.
The lack of kindness, and shockingly that some mothers were made to feel that they were in some way responsible for the death of their baby, is unforgivable.

If you don't have time to read through it all read chapter 4. It's horrific.

[Daisy]

Gem, you're right. It makes terrifying reading.

It seems unbelievable that there may be nearly 2,000 pregnancies where there was cause for concern in the way mothers and babies were cared for. Nearly 2,000, in a largely rural population.

I kept thinking as I read it that if my DIL1 had given birth to GS1 in one of those hospitals both mum and baby would have been in serious danger.

[Sum1Ls]

I kept thinking as I read it that if my DIL1 had given birth to GS1 in one of those hospitals both mum and baby would have been in serious danger.

My thoughts exactly. GS 1 wouldn’t be here.

[Daisy]

It is truly horrific, Sum1. Thank goodness both our DILs were given first class care.

I can't understand why there was such a rapid turnover of senior executives at the Trust. That surely needs explaining.

I gave birth to DS2 in a hospital where mothers were treated like lumps of meat on a slab and were spoken to like dirt. It wasn't pleasant. I was lucky I was well enough and bolshi enough to fight my corner, but not everyone was. There was a young mum who had given birth to her second son . She had planned to be sterilised but had changed her mind. She was told she couldn't change her mind and had to go through with the procedure. She was heartbroken at a time when she should have been enjoying her new babe. But all that was in the 1970s and you'd have thought things would have improved beyond treatment like that.

[Plantaholic]

So true Daisy, I planned to have my children at home, the district nurse loved delivering babies. Unfortunately I had to go into hospital as they thought the placenta was coming first and it was a foggy night. Nurse came in the ambulance with me and my DS was delivered normally, unfortunately with a club foot. The nurse came in every day for a fortnight, bathed the baby and me. When it came to DD, nurse was determined to deliver her and she did so. I couldn't have been looked after better. The third experience was quite different and I think the care I received in the hospital was the reason I lost the baby. The Matron came to my room one morning on her rounds and asked me how my baby was!!! My DD was bullied by a nurse when she had her second and another nurse encouraged her to go home so she didn't have to face her again. When she was in having her babies I was appalled that a nurse would pick up the leg of the baby and prick it to do a blood test without informing the mother. I am hoping that my GD1's experience is a happy one.

[Daisy]

Plant - how awful - such horror stories, especially the dear little baby you lost. xx