If you have been watching the TV this week you will know what I am talking about GMTV have been talking to mothers regarding their experiences in child birth, which if anyone is really honest has to be said are never brilliant, the end result is but the actual labour itself is the most undignified painful experience any woman will have to undertake in their lives.
Watching GMTV got me thinking as a mother of 4 myself, and I have to say that the births werent exactly what I had in mind, the first one I wanted to stop and come back at a later stage when I could prepare myself, the second was relatively easy in birthing terms, the third not so easy 17 hours to be precise, and the 4th well if she had been my first she would be an only child, I wont bore you with all the details suffice to say that, after my waters had broken 2 weeks prior to the birth and being told that I did not know what I was talking about by the conquest, my own GP begging for them to sort me out me heamoraging for almost 6 weeks after the birth, her getting stuck and having to use KY jelly and hot saline to assist the birth, the hospital loosing my notes after the birth and my daughter having to have tests to confirm that she was all ok, due to their mistake. luckily for us she only suffered from really dry skin we had to oil her 3 times a day with olive oil from head to foot, and she also had dry lungs, made her prone to chest infections which she still gets from time to time, but all in all the fact that I could not stand for the last 2 weeks as she was stuck actually saved her otherwise she could of got damaged by my movements and could well have been brain damaged.
I have to say when I had my first child, it was 20 years ago, he was born in the slightly decaying Buchanan hospital, but what the building lacked in charisma the staff made up for in care, you as a patient were valued, cared for and put first there was no superbugs, and generally speaking you felt safe.
Now twenty years later when medical science has made many breakthroughs the standard of care has gone out of the window you are no longer cared for as you should be you are a number not a name, superbugs are as common as a cold, and the nurses are trained in the art of paperwork not bedside manner, patients no longer look at the trained staff for help they look towards the care assistants, trained staff morale is at an all time low, staff levels have never been lower, and the main focus of the hospital appears to be get the patients back home as soon as possible, you are discharged far quicker and after care at home is vertually non existant, going back to when I had my son not only was I in hospital for 7 days, I had a midwife visit me at home for the next 10 days followed by a health visitor who then took over my care package until my son was 1 month old, by the time I had my 2nd child the time in hospital for 1st time mums had been reduced to 3 days, nowadays you basically pop in have the baby go home 5 hours later, and the midwife will visit you at home 3 more times in the first 2 weeks, followed by the health visitor who will pop in once after that, following this you make arrangements with your GP and go to the clinic yourself if you wish... IS this progress?? How can they tell if new mums can cope in this short little window of aftercare, how can they say the patient feels cared for or safe, I really think that times did not change for the better instead of using medical research for the better of man its been used as a scape goat to get people back home asap, no matter who is there to help them. no wonder home births are on the increase hardly seems worth popping in for the time that you are there for not to mention the care that you are going to receive, your birthing partner will be on their own with you they will be the one doing most of the work for the nurses  that includes washing you the hospital is so busy the staff are in short supply, its not their fault they do the best they can with the numbers they are given but their paperwork must be done, this takes priority over the care they can give, somewhere something has to change, if a nurse wanted to do paperwork she would have been a secretary she trained to be a nurse because she wanted to make a difference she wanted to be given the opportunity to care.