‘Not a single soul who cared’: Forgotten new mothers recall trauma of giving birth in pandemic

Pregnancy can often be an anxious time for women but the usual fears have snowballed in the wake of the coronavirus crisis as maternity services have been catapulted into chaos.

From giving birth alone without a partner to having pregnancy plans changed at the eleventh hour to getting less access to pain relief, the Covid-19 emergency has radically changed women’s experiences of childbirth.

Frontline service providers warn upheaval of maternity services is already creating a “mental health epidemic” among new mothers and their partners who have been left traumatised by their distressing experiences in hospitals up and down the country.

The Independent has spoken to new mothers who have firsthand experience of the Covid crisis wreaking havoc with their pregnancy, experience of labour, and recovery.

Kirsty Baylis says she developed horrendous health complications due to coronavirus disruptions resulting in her not getting the medical care she so desperately needed after childbirth.

“I called the GP two weeks after my baby was born in August,” the 35 year old explains. “I developed mastitus [inflammation of the breast’s mammary gland] but it wasn’t diagnosed in time because nobody would see me because of Covid rules. I contacted 10 different health professionals but none of them would see me. I was worried about it being a cancerous lump.”

Ms Baylis, who lives just outside of Sheffield, says she explicitly told doctors they needed to act fast otherwise milk can quickly build up and it can cause all manner of problems, but doctors ignored her requests.

“I had to stop breastfeeding my baby because of the pain,” she adds. “I couldn’t hold him, feed him, or change him. My husband had to do all of that."

She was still trying to convince a health professional to look at it by the end of September when she finally managed to get a face-to-face appointment.

“By then, it had developed into a huge abscess which was at risk of sepsis,” Ms Baylis, who had an emergency C-section, adds. “By the point they saw me, I could barely string a sentence together because of the pain and stress. I was in complete agony. It was the worst pain I’ve ever felt. It was like someone was putting a red hot pole through the middle of my breast.”

She says she crashed out due to pain when they drained the abscess – 45ml of fluid was removed but she was left with a lump the size of a tennis ball.

“I felt completely dismissed,” Ms Baylis says. “I was told it would be fine but the next day, I had to go to A&E. It burst open and I had to have an emergency operation. I 100 per cent believe it was their lack of action which meant it built up. It was untreated for a month but the advice on the NHS for mastitis is 48 hours.”

She says the issue is ongoing and the abscess is not yet healed – she has to burn it herself every day for three minutes which is massively painful. Sometimes the pain is so bad it wakes her up in the night, she adds.

“It has gone from healing quite well to picking up infections,” Ms Baylis says. “The news I had an infection sat in the GP’s inbox for three weeks and they didn’t tell me because of coronavirus disrupting health services. Everything I’ve been told by a medical professional has not been in line with NHS guidelines.”

Ms Baylis says the whole ordeal has profoundly affected her mental health, adding that she has been referred to a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) specialist as a result.

Pregnant Then Screwed, a leading campaign group, tells The Independent it has been inundated with women who have been “forgotten” in the wake of the Covid crisis.

Celia Venables, a spokesperson for the charity, adds: “From having to sit in hospital beds with their babies crying for up to 20 minutes, unable to pick them up after C-sections due to understaffed maternity wards, to a lack of follow-ups with health visitors causing health implications, women have been neglected.”

She says women have routinely been separated from their babies because of coronavirus regulations, with some consequently not able to breastfeed and, in turn, feeling let down.

Laura Packer says she spent many days overdue in hospital alone and her experience of having her first born was “awful”. She says she had more than half a dozen different midwives and the lack of consistency made her feel like she was a number.

“You felt like you were on a conveyer belt,” the 33 year old, who gave birth in June, adds. “Two weeks before the due date, I wanted clarification if my husband could be with me during the labour process. Nobody could give me a definite answer. I spoke to multiple people in the maternity department and I spoke to senior people.”

Ms Packer said not knowing if her husband would be there caused her a great deal of anxiety. She was told she would have to be induced due to passing her due date – adding that she was only informed her husband could not accompany her when she arrived in hospital.

“My husband could come no further until I was in active labour,” Ms Packer adds. “It was emotional saying goodbye. I could see he was tearing up. I have a fear of hospital as for over six years as a child, I had to go to one every Wednesday as I had bowel issues. I remember being pinned down and cameras going to go places you don’t want them to go.”

She says she burst into tears as soon as she got into bed and her nerves and anxiety meant the baby’s heartbeat started racing.

“We were both so nervous and irate and anxious,” she adds. “We were on the heart rate machine for four hours and the average time is 40 minutes. You could hear the heartbeat and it was like a horse galloping. The faster the baby’s heart rate, the louder it seems to get.”

Ms Packer says her husband came into the hospital at the eleventh hour when she was in active labour but was forced to leave after only being there for an hour.

“I had an emergency caesarean because my body wouldn’t go into labour,” she adds. “I had him at 4.30pm and was discharged at lunchtime the next day because they were so busy. I was crouching around the bed in giant maternity pads, hooked up to machines alone, trying to change his nappy.”

Ms Packer said normally she would have had a partner there to help her look after the newborn baby, explaining it was terrifying leaving her baby alone while going to the toilet.

“It was the most nerve-wracking and traumatic experience of my life,” she adds. “It was massively surreal. If that’s how it was for every time you have birth, I wouldn’t have another child again. It was lonely. It was chaotic. You felt totally left to it and totally unsupported. At one point it felt like there was not a single soul in the world who cared about you apart from your immediate family.”

Ms Packer said it was traumatic trying to breastfeed with nobody available to give her any proper support or advice in person. The National Breastfeeding Helpline was inundated with women to support because women did not have health visitors coming out to their house due to Covid restrictions, she says.

“Six months on and I still have postnatal depression, anxiety and I’m taking anti-depressants,” she adds. “All which I believe could of been avoided if I’d had the support I needed.”

Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, says the needs of pregnant women and mothers have been wholly ignored during the coronavirus crisis.

She adds: “At the beginning, there was a level of acceptance and understanding that serious sacrifices would need to be made. But nine months later, pregnant women are still unsafe at work, they are still being forced to attend hospital appointments and endure early labour on their own. 

“They are still on postnatal wards with a new baby, unable to move due to surgery with little support. Some of these problems are complex but they are not impossible. If we prioritised the needs of these women and their growing babies then all of this would have been resolved months ago.

“Pregnancy and new motherhood is tough. These women and their babies are vulnerable – both mentally and physically. We are currently witnessing a future mental health epidemic among new families, and this time, it is an epidemic we created ourselves.”

A fortnight ago, new guidance sent to trusts in England stipulated pregnant women should be permitted to have one person accompanying them during scans, appointments, labour and actually giving birth.

Catherine Hayes, who lives in South Devon, says she was in an empty bay all night as she awaited for her coronavirus results while having contractions with no partner alongside her.

“I felt isolated and lonely,” the 40 year old adds. “I was having to find an app to time my contractions myself. That was tricky as I had never had contractions before, because I’d had a caesarean before. I cried a lot after I had the baby, worrying if I’d made the right decisions with my labour.”

Ms Hayes, who wound up having an emergency caesarean back in May, says she wished she had been able to have her husband there to consult over decisions. She did not see her son until two hours after he was born and explains they tried to send her husband away around two hours after she surfaced from the general anaesthetic.

“I couldn’t keep my eyes open because of the general anaesthetic so couldn’t look after the baby,” she adds. “I was hysterical and crying and begging so [the nurse] let him stay for a couple more hours. Before I was put out under general anaesthetic, I remember praying, thinking this is really serious, and I don’t know if I’m going to survive or the baby’s going to survive.”

Ms Hayes, who had pre-eclampsia and an emergency caesarean with her previous baby, says her most recent birth was supposed to “lay the ghosts to rest” from her previous experience of labour – but in the end it did the exact opposite.