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"Bleeding after caesarean"

About: Maternity care / Labour Suite Maternity care / Obstetric Musculoskeletal Outpatients

(as a service user),

I had an emergency caesarean for my first baby which was not a good experience. The doctor doing the operation seemed very anxious and i seemed to bleed a lot during and after it because it all took a long time although they said it was fine. But I continued to bleed for weeks and weeks after and everyone kept reassuring me this is normal. My GP referred me back to obstetric but they refused to see me as it had been 6 weeks and they said no placenta left there as it was a caesarean so there couldn’t be. Eventually a gynaecologist saw me, did a scan and found an 8cm piece of placenta that I needed a general anaesthetic to remove.

I was told this really shouldn’t happen after a caesarean and I feel really upset that this did happen and that I needed more surgery. The whole thing has felt like such an ordeal for me.

After the caesarean the doctor never saw me again to check how I was or even give me a chance to ask any questions. After any other surgery you would see the surgeon again and then probably even have a follow up but in childbirth you are expected to just not really understand why it had to happen and then be ok with never seeing them again or having any follow up. It all seems strange to me, particularly when a complication happens. It felt like I was being practised on as this has been devastating for me.

A terrifying experience which I never want to repeat.

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Responses

Response from Stephanie Gardiner, Senior charge midwife, Obs and Gynaecology, NHS Tayside 2 weeks ago
Stephanie Gardiner
Senior charge midwife, Obs and Gynaecology,
NHS Tayside
Submitted on 20/03/2025 at 16:42
Published on Care Opinion at 16:42


Dear Lilly_6

I wish to congratulate you on the birth of your baby, I hope you are now both doing well at home and enjoying the exciting times a newborn baby brings to the family dynamic

I wish to thank you for taking the time to share your experience with us, it is really valuable to our service to receive direct feedback from women and families, to enable us to guide and drive improvements within the provisions of the service

I am sorry you had a very distressing experience during the caesarean birth of your baby, and I am sorry you did not have the opportunity for an immediate debrief from the operating obstetric team at the time of the event nor any offer of an Obstetric debrief 6- 8 weeks following your birth to provide time for your to process your experience and enable you to direct any questions you may have to the Obstetric team. I cannot offer further comment as to the rationale the operating team were not available to visit you the day of surgery.

Following your postnatal gynaecology follow up there have been learning addressed within the service following the concerns where you had retained placental tissue following birth- I cannot provide detail regarding this due to the anonymity of care opinion

However, we do have an available birth reflections service (tay.birthreflections@nhs.scot ) that is a self referral service offering women and partners the opportunity to meet with the midwives to discuss their birth journey in detail with direct access to your maternity record for reference throughout the discussion. This may support some closure for any unanswered questions you may have

Alternatively, if you feel you wish your concerns to receive a formal response and individual review of your care, you can request formal feedback via tay.feedback@nhs.scot

I hope that offers you some appropriate options to seek the information that may help support your birth recovery

Kindest regards

Stephanie Gardiner

Senior Midwife

NHS Tayside

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