Afternoon Update - Not happy!

I think that if you look back over this blog you'll find we give Stepping Hill a pretty good press. But when it comes to the way they have handled the induction leading up to the labour - not only this time but also with Oliver - I'd have to give them a pretty low score.

Since entering hospital last night Hayley has been treated well by a number of individual midwives, but as hour follows hour follows hour you start to realise that each new shift of staff that comes on loses any of the sense of urgency that had developed in the preceding shift. Meanwhile Hayley becomes ever more tired and, little by little, more distressed as a result.

Last night she was given prostin, then again this morning. She was then told they would break her waters after waiting a couple of hours. That was around 6am.

Since then nothing significant has happened, but a number of deadlines for moving her have been set and then expired without comment. She was told at around 11am that she was going to be moved to the Delivery Suite to have her waters broken. It is now 5pm and no-one has even been in to explain to her what is causing the delay. The most we've got out of the (very rude) member of staff on the desk on her ward is that there was an emergency. This has happened twice today.

Hayley is already tired after a poor night's sleep. And since then her contractions have died down which seems to have removed all sense of urgency, as if they think she is a piece of baby-generating equipment that can be left in the corner until they have more time to re-start her.

Perhaps this is a sign of lack of resources in the NHS, I don't know. What I do know is that for all that the midwives might treat her like an individual, the system as a whole is treating her like a commodity.

Meanwhile the clock keeps ticking and our childcare arrangements become ever more difficult. It's bad enough dealing with nature's delays let alone those caused by the ever-lengthening list of vanishing deadlines set by the staff on the ward.

I'm briefly back home so Hayley can try to rest and hopefully even sleep for a couple of hours while this hiatus persists. It also gives me chance to get her some more clothes as her stay is going to be longer than we had hoped.

Once I go back we plan to push them for a firm decision. It could mean they break her waters. It could even mean they delay until tomorrow.

As I say, we are not happy.