"midwives are rude, snappy, bossy and impatient"

The midwives at the labour ward and maternity ward are always so rude and snappy. They don't show any sympathy or compassion for labouring mums, and they are also very slow at administering pain relief. They just leave you screaming and writhing alone and in pain for hours. I had to literally beg like a screaming mad woman to be injected pethidine as midwives were reluctant to administer the drug because it would apparently make the baby drowsy so they seemed to be happy to see me wail in pain instead. The entonox (gas and air) they gave me was deliberately made weak so did not have any affect on me; it did not even make me feel dizzy, but then neither did pethidine work as it was all deliberately administered on extremely pathetic low doses. When I called for an epidural they dismissed it saying no-one is available to supervise me on an epidural.

In the maternity ward midwives are similarly cranky and bossy, and giving mixed advice. If one says feed your baby more often, the other says you're overfeeding him. It was the same with all advice they gave;they all had mixed and differing ideas. You don't know who to listen to. In the end I just followed my own intuition and did whatever I thought was best for the baby, and was dying to get out of this hell hole, but they were slow ridiculously slow at discharging me, keeping me and the baby at the hospital unnecessarily for over 4 days. The day they stated I would be discharged (telling me to pack my bags by 12), I was all packed and ready to go and had brought a family member over to help us take our belongings and we were waiting for hours but they just wouldn't finish writing the discharge letter. Every time I inquired at the desk I was responded to by angry midwives. In the end I got sick of waiting in the waiting area for hours so I left, and just then a midwife phoned and I told them I've left. They told me to get back here in a stern tone, so I went back and they threatened me with the police because apparently I had "stolen" my baby from the hospital and ran off without permission.

These people need extensive training. I cannot trust them with my life in their hands.