At the start of this placement, we each interviewed 5-6 family and friends who had given birth. We asked them about their experiences and impressions of the birth space. The questionnaire we designed was a template for us to go off of and we spoke to each mother individually about each question, understanding their narrative and asking further questions.

From these 16 women, we were able to group together some common themes in what was discussed, these were:

“The room “felt cramped” and there were no rails or handles to grab hold of to help mobilising”

“It was a depressing place and very disorientating”

“It was a big room but I remember seeing the stirrups on the bed and being scared”

“I remember kneeling on the bed looking at the door thinking ‘I’m not getting out of here alive'”

“There was no help from the midwives for breastfeeding which was very difficult”

“ The night doctor didn’t have the best bed side manner, when telling me about how my son was in the night,  I was on my own and trying not to express how emotional I was”

“Imagine spending 18 hours in excruciating pain in a place that lacks warmth and good energy.”

“I got to a stage where I was crying because I was in so much pain and the midwives said ‘don’t cry you’re embarrassing yourself’”

“The first time I gave birth, I was strapped up to monitors and couldn’t move around”

“I was in so much pain for the second birth, I could only stand and yet I had to move rooms at some point for some reason and walk in agony to the next room!”

“I had no option but to lie down or stand”

“Maybe if there was something more comforting and there were softer surroundings it could have made it better for me and changed the experience I had”

(Written by Zoe Markham, Beth Hart and Raquel De Freitas August 2020)