MKHospital -> Thanks for taking time to respond to the concerns.
I will respond in 2 sections:
1) Experience - however cosmetic, still essential and speaks a lot to me about how the MK program takes itself and sees itself as a service provider.
2) Medical - The most important one. Period!
Experience
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I did take a tour. We did see the room no 1, maternity ward 9,10. We did not see the neo-natal unit nor did we hear anything about it. It was a quick 20 min tour, covering the very very basic.
But I have to say this tour nor what I saw gave me any reassurance I was looking for.
Room no 1, was very small, to be fair the tour guide did say that is the smallest room, but still if I have to give birth in that room I will be more distressed than ever. I didnt undestand how l long I will be in that room ( not elaborated in the tour) but
1) There was no storage space to speak for.
2) The bed side chest was chipped all over and I've can buy better ones from a car boot sale.
3) For the 2 visitors, there is 1 chair and 1 stool. How could they relax in between all the drama.
4) I am a big girl and this room is not even comfortable for a petite women at her time of distress, let alone comfort me.
More distressing was the 4 bays of 6 beds each. Imagine the smallest space smallest space to put 6 beds, 6 cribs and 6 chairs. Thats it. The mother in the middle just has to stretch her hands a bit to touch the poor father cramped next to the mother on the right. It was really very very sad! There is a curtain, and if you close you will feel as if you are in a shower cubicle with your husband and baby and soon run out of oxygen!
May be I am expecting too much! I dont know! But after seeing the birthing suites in US and India and in other places in UK, I am seriously depressed at what I am seeing in MK hospital. Agreed that both the former are private, but other UK hospitals seems to provide a better experience than this.
Medical
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All the fear I have listed in my original post stems from a personal accounts from dear friends or acquantiance who I think is no different to me, has/had the same level of exposure and expectation out of pregnancy. Some are better off than me w.r.t to pain tolerance and general courage. The rest are from the newspaper. ( Enough of bashing the sensationalist media! I do take offense when they are sensationalist abt junk celebrities, but abt medical things, I appreciate and call it raising awarness! ) I would disagree that there is any inaccurate information leading to my misunderstanding. I agree not all information is equal, but they are information which raise awarness in us nonethless.
I understand there are protocols for everything, but how do I know what they are and if they are followed to a T? How do I know if nothing is published and available for general public for the ones that care for such a thing? Its all well and good to say we follow protocol, but what are they?
Even with protocols, can you honestly say that things like the following never happens? I can assure you that the following are personal accounts from ladies who gave birth in MK, not from media, not from different counties. Are these acceptable protocols?
1) Denying epidural until too late and then saying its too late! Unacceptable!
Where is the choice for the women?
How can an anesthetist not be available for 6 hours?
2) Sending women back home in pain. Forcing partners to go back home. Your midwives are busy and wont come after repeated requesting, pleading, hollering. Why traumatise the poor women by sending the one person she can depend on home? Some women are lucky but some women take time to get into established labour to get one-on-one care from your midwife. Its not the womens fault. Neither is it yours. But why deny her the husbands/partners presence or pain medication? Where is the choice for the pregnant women?
3) Intimidating women by saying she needs to focus on the baby, talking rough, ignoring repeated calls. Behaving as if you are doing a favor and not doing your job and generally creating an unpleasant environment in the area. Unacceptable! You are in the position of our trust and respect! We are at our most vulnerable! Where is the care if the poor mother and family feel ignored and hapless and talked down?
4) The tour didnt speak in terms of care, but in only in terms of "check in when u are REALLY dilated" and "checkout on 0 + 1 day !" not even a courtesy "just come by if you are not sure", or "you and your baby are important to us", or a "better safe than sorry". I know you are busy. So is everyone. But this is certainly not comforting to a first time mom.
5) Every other week there is a story in media abt poor care. Agreed that most a few months old, but still its scary and neither the tour nor the midwife I see is generally able to help alleviate the worried mind.
You may say that 97% of women are satisfied but how is that in my personal interviews barely 30% of the women say they are sufficiently satisfied and the rest 70% have only horror stories?
I have no problems accepting that I may have some different notions of what to expect becuase of my worldly exposure and most MK women are happy with what they get, but still I am voicing my concerns and giving my feedback becuase I geniunley beleive that this is not the world class care one expects from a fast growing city like MK in a developed country like UK. At best the wards are of standard in goverment hospital in better developed of the developing countries like Srilanka or Bangladesh or countries in Africa.
On reading this post back I realise that I am not putting forth a very strong medical case, but I am not a professional at this but just a conerned first time preg. mother and will be glad if some of this feedback is found valuable and useful.
I am going to continue taking tours of the other hospitals and hopefully they are better than MK or atleast help me better understand and adjust my expectation of the reality of maternity services in UK.