Morgan Joins, 28, was left feeling guilty and traumatised for months after giving birth at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, where she overheard a nurse blame her son's health issues on her decision to have a caesarean-section.
Morgan was advised to have a C-section due to complications during labour. Shortly after her son Jensen was born, he was rushed to the high dependency unit and put on oxygen. As she lay in the maternity ward, she claims she heard a nurse say to colleagues outside the curtains: "Her poor son is on the high dependency unit because she was too lazy to push."
Impact on recovery
Morgan, a stay-at-home mum, told the Mirror: "I didn't choose to have a caesarean, I was advised. Her comment really stuck with me and I carried that trauma and guilt for a long time – I thought it was my fault my son was unwell. It took a huge mental toll, and it pushed my recovery back a long time."
Her story comes as new health secretary Yvette Cooper vowed to overhaul NHS maternity care, pulling together a task force with five key aims, including setting national care standards to avoid a postcode lottery for new mums.
Cooper's plans
Cooper also aims to tackle racial inequalities for Black and Asian women, make patient experience part of measuring standards, and introduce targets for early warning of underperformance before major scandals develop.
She told the Guardian: "I would worry about any mum feeling pressurised that there is somehow a kind of an ideal birth experience to live up to when it's always different in every case, and you have to follow the evidence, you have to have informed choice."
Morgan welcomed the announcement but feared a cultural shift wouldn't come easily. "I have concerns as I don't think it's anything to do with how they [maternity staff] are trained," she said. "It has a lot to do with individual opinions and beliefs, so there will likely always be some nurses, midwives, nurses and doctors who will carry the belief that c-sections are the easy way out. As a patient, we want these changes, but will maternity staff be on board with it?"
Hospital scrutiny
John Radcliffe Hospital has faced intense scrutiny following investigations revealing preventable baby deaths, systemic failings, ignored maternal concerns, and a defensive institutional culture. A landmark independent review led by senior midwife Donna Ockenden into Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust revealed in June how over 500 mums and babies suffered potentially avoidable harm or died due to deep-rooted, systemic failings.
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust was approached for comment.
