Mums who have given birth at Sheffield's largest maternity unit have revealed all about the "horrible" conditions, with some parents saying they feared for their baby's lives.
One mum - a midwife herself - was so concerned about her unborn baby's welfare that she and her partner temporarily moved to London just weeks before her due date. "I felt like my son and I might have died if we had the pregnancy in Sheffield," she said.
Several mums have spoken toYorkshireLiveabout their stories after a scathing report uncovered the scale of the issues on the Jessop Wing. CQC inspectors highlighted all manner of major issues about the care given at Sheffield Teaching Hospital's specialist maternity unit, including examples of emergency help not arriving when staff called for it.
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Distraught mums said they were left naked and covered in bodily fluids while others complained about being ignored for hours despite begging for pain relief. Dangerously low staffing levels exposed patients to the risk of serious harm, while midwives themselves revealed a toxic environment of a "bullying and intimidating culture" from senior management.
As a Trust spokesperson said "we are very sorry" and vowed to make big improvements, we spoke to some of the families worst affected by the problems as they explained how "basic dignity and care have gone out the window".
Rinoa Pearson was just 19 when she gave birth to her baby girl Delilah. She had been in and out of hospital in the weeks leading up to her birth, complaining of dizziness and debilitating headaches.
She feared it might have been pre-eclampsia, a condition that causes high blood pressure and can be serious if not treated. She was told that wasn't the case, but when she went back at 40 weeks pregnant with a blood pressure of 190, the complete opposite turned out to be true.
"They had been telling me for weeks that I didn’t have pre-eclampsia, but it turned out that I had it severely," said Riona. "They had to break my waters there and then. It was terrifying."
The young mum was forced to go through all this by herself. Many other mothers would face the same over the intervening months, as the Jessop Wing enforced Covid-19 measures all the way until November 2021 which were far stricter than the national guidance.
"All I was thinking was is she going to be OK?" said Rinoa, who was in severe pain at this stage.
"I asked for pain relief on so many occasions, but I didn’t have any gas and air for about seven or eight hours of labour. There was no pain relief at all. I was in agony. It was horrible."
As Delilah's heart rate plummeted, Rinoa was rushed into theatre to undergo an emergency caesarean section. "They said they weren't sure if she was going to make it."
Thankfully, Delilah was born without any complications and she was soon safely in her mother's arms. Due to the strict Covid measures, Rinoa's partner had to leave the ward soon after.
The teenage mum was left alone with her firstborn child and she toldYorkshireLiveshe felt as though she was "tossed aside" by midwives. "They left me to go and have a shower on my own when I couldn’t feel anything," she said.
"I couldn’t feel my legs. I couldn’t dress myself and I was in so much pain that I had to pull the cord to get someone to come and help me. All I could feel was the pain."
"I just felt really embarrassed and I felt like I had no dignity. I would have felt more comfortable if someone was with me all along.
"I just felt like I was completely on my own. I just couldn’t stop crying. I was so overwhelmed. I was stressed and angry."
Inadequate
Jessop Wing CQC rating, April 2022
CQC
Sadly, Riona's experience is far from uncommon. Over the course of two visits in October and November 2021, CQC inspectors uncovered more grim experiences.
One woman said she was left naked and dirty, holding her baby in a dirty bed. She told inspectors she was covered in bodily fluids and couldn't reach the buzzer or phone to call for help.
Another mum said that "basic dignity and care have gone out the window" and that women simply were not being cared for. In one instance, a woman was inappropriately placed on an incorrect ward for days, while some midwives were said to be rude and abrupt and others did not always provide emotional support to women.
"Staff did not always treat women with compassion and kindness, respect their privacy and dignity, or take account of their individual needs," said the report.
CQC inspectors also raised concerns that basic needs weren't met. There was one particularly shocking example where mothers had to share food as they weren't given enough to eat.
Riona's experience of being left without pain relief is another common theme. Understaffing and a lack of monitoring led to many mums being left without medicine, especially women from black and minority ethnic groups.
"Not all women reported receiving pain relief soon after requesting it," said the inspectors. "Women we spoke with and those who contact us independently, reported long delays in receiving analgesia during labour and postnatal care."
Women on the Jessop Wing often had to wait a long time to be seen too. During one of the inspection days, three separate women had been left waiting five days to be induced.
Riona toldYorkshireLiveshe fears for women who give birth on the Jessop Wing.
"It’s horrible," she said. "I have got two friends who are due this year and they keep asking me what it was like. I don’t want to tell them. I don’t want to stress them out."
"It’s worrying that it’s still happening now and it’s just not fair on the women and their babies."
Amalia Alonso is a midwife with years of experience in the role. She was due to give birth to her baby on the Jessop Wing in January 2021, but she was so concerned by the lack of care that she made the bold decision to transfer to a hospital in London just weeks before her baby arrived.
The 37-year-old had a scan in the early stages of her pregnancy after noticing bleeding. It was at this appointment that Amalia was told her son had Spina Bifida and she claims a consultant told her to have an abortion.
"He said the bleeding was the last of my worries," she claimed. "He said he wasn’t an expert but that I should terminate my pregnancy.
"I had an MRI and the person who did that scan told me my son wouldn't walk or talk. I was enraged."
After feeling as though they were being "ignored" by staff at Sheffield Teaching Hospital, Amalia and her partner James decided to move into an apartment 170 miles away in London, where they felt assured they would receive better care.
"I rang my partner at 32 weeks saying I can’t do this anymore," said Amalia.
"We paid for an apartment for a month, so I could be near the hospital. That was the only time I felt safe in the pregnancy and the only time I felt listened to.
"It felt like we were crazy for having my son and giving him a chance, but I feared my son and I might have died if we had the pregnancy in Sheffield."
The CQC report showed how complaints filed on the Jessop Wing were regularly brushed aside. "As a black woman," said one mum, "I felt I was dismissed, and my concerns were not taken seriously." Three other mothers reported similar experiences to inspectors.
Amalia said: "I’m not surprised [about the CQC report] because the care that we received was awful. They caused so much unnecessary trauma.
"I have developed anxiety and depression. It has caused me so much stress.
"My son was born safely in London. He is a really happy and content baby. It’s nothing like they told us in Sheffield.
"I wish the person that told me to terminate my pregnancy could see my son now. How wrong he was."
Demi Hastings first spoke toYorkshireLivelast year, when a previous CQC inspection uncovered serious failings on the Jessop Wing. The 25-year-old said she was left feeling "embarrassed and humiliated" by staff on the ward during both of her pregnancies.
Her first baby, Liorah, was born extremely premature at just 25 weeks in 2013. Three years later, she returned and gave birth to her second child, but conditions hadn't improved.
"The midwife just gave me the baby and walked off," said Demi. "I still had my legs wide open and nobody came back for two hours.
"The blood wasn't cleared up or the sheets removed. They didn't tell me how to feed my baby or anything. It was really traumatic. After I gave birth, I said to my mum I felt embarrassed."
Following this latest inspection, Demi said it was "shocking" that improvements haven't been made.
"When I saw it, I just thought about other mums and how scary it must be for them knowing they are going to go in there.
"They don’t seem to have listened to the advice. It’s scary they are still not listening and it's shocking they are not making the changes.
"It makes me feel really sad that they are not listening. The risk is for the mothers and the babies. They need to receive the correct care.
"It’s a lack of compassion towards the mums that worries me the most. They need to listen [to mothers].
"When I went there the second time, I was humiliated and I was ignored. I have had friends who said they would never have a baby there.
"I would never go back."
Professor Chris Morley, chief nurse at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, has apologised to all affected families and promised to improve its services.
In a statement, he said: "Our teams work hard to provide the best possible care for all women and babies and so we are very sorry that the experience of some women has not been of the standard that we strive for. We are committed to making the improvements needed and a number of actions have already been completed.
"We have recruited extra midwives and obstetricians as well as additional support staff. We have improved our systems for induction of labour and we are also overhauling our processes to make it easier for staff to report incidents and for us to respond more quickly if changes are needed.
"We have also been working with the Maternity Voices Partnership, to make sure we use the experience of women using our services to inform changes and we have introduced a new triage tool in labour assessment to identify women at most risk as well as creating a dedicated assessment area separate from labour ward with additional staff. We are also one of the first NHS Trusts to adopt the Tommy’s APP which calculates a woman's individual risk of pregnancy problems, to identify if they need additional support and monitoring. We are determined to ensure women can have confidence in receiving high quality care for them and their babies."
Have you had a bad experience on the Jessop Wing? Let us know by emailing kristian.johnson@reachplc.com or contact him on Facebook.
