![\"Bethany](\"https:\/\/sheffieldwire.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/bethany-and-baby-4-1-787x1024.jpg\")
\u201cWhen I woke up I was covered in blood,” says Bethanie. “My partner, Filip, had to help me wash.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few hours later, hospital staff told Bethanie she had to ‘get walking’ and her catheter needed to be removed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI told them I didn\u2019t feel ready,” she says. “With my background in healthcare I knew that they shouldn’t have taken it out yet, but they weren\u2019t listening to me. They put in five catheters altogether because they kept taking them out before I was ready.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two days after giving birth Bethanie started vomiting black fluid. \u201cFilip kept going to tell the midwives and nobody was listening or doing anything about it,” she says. \u201cWhen I eventually went for a CT scan they found that my bowels weren\u2019t working properly and I had to have tubes inserted to drain the fluid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI literally thought I was going to die. The professionals around weren\u2019t compassionate or reassuring, and the whole time I was petrified.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A week after Bethanie was first admitted to hospital, despite being unable to walk, staff told her she was ready to go home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bethanie claims this was down to the fact the maternity ward was understaffed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The midwives would even say \u2018it\u2019s impossible to do our jobs right now\u2019,\u201d says Bethanie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new mum spent the next six months unable to walk more than a few metres at a time. She was in and out of hospital, and prescribed several different antibiotics to treat infections to her wound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt one point they wanted to readmit me but I was so scared of the hospital I refused,” says Bethanie. “I didn\u2019t want to go back there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the community midwife visited Bethanie at her house shortly after the birth, she advised her to get therapy, which the NHS offers to people who have had traumatic births.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bethanie hoped she would get over the trauma on her own so only self-referred herself after two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It got to the stage where I was struggling to live every day not knowing how to deal with it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 12 therapy sessions helped Bethanie and she is now able to talk about her experience without crying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bethanie arranged a debrief with the hospital to try and understand what went wrong. Initially she says the hospital claimed they couldn\u2019t find her notes, and during the eventual meeting she felt “everything she said was contradicted”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s put me off having another baby\u201d, says Bethanie. \u201cI\u2019d like to have one but I\u2019m absolutely petrified.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bethanie has considered legal action and making a formal against but was worried about the effect it could have on her mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to keep reliving my experiences over and over again, possibly for no outcome,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Kim Thomas, CEO of the Birth Trauma Association<\/a>, says: \u201cHospitals will often fight legal cases aggressively and do everything they can to make it difficult for you. It can be quite brutalising.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Dr Thomas<\/a> it is common for hospitals to claim to have lost notes, among other “dirty tricks”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She authored the 2024 report <\/a>of the parliamentary inquiry into birth trauma, which found \u201ca pattern of really poor care\u201d and repeats many of Bethanie’s experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWomen often had an idea that something had gone wrong in the labour but were ridiculed or had their concerns dismissed”, says Dr Thomas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe need a change in the culture so that women are being listened to. There needs to be better teamwork amongst midwives and obstetricians, and consent should be properly obtained before carrying out a procedure. A lot of women tell us that even after a traumatic birth, there’s no compassion from the hospital staff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Research<\/a> suggests that four to five per cent of people develop PTSD after giving birth, equivalent to approximately 25,000-30,000 every year in the UK. Studies have also found that as many as one in three people find some aspects of their birth experience traumatic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite its prevalence, people with birth trauma so often feel alone, said Dr Thomas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere’s this kind of assumption that birth is a happy thing and that as long as your baby’s born healthy you shouldn’t complain,” says Dr Thomas. “Nobody’s listening to you, nobody’s nurturing you, nobody’s taking care of you. And all you want is for somebody to say \u2018I’m really sorry that happened to you\u2019, which isn\u2019t a difficult thing to say but it\u2019s very rare for women to hear that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have women coming to us who gave birth 40 years ago and they’re still traumatized by what happened. So if you don’t get treatment or support it might never go away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Birth Trauma Association offers support<\/a>, including WhatsApp groups and email-based peer support for people who may struggle face-to-face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier this week, former MP Theo Clarke publisher her memoir \u2018Breaking the Taboo: Why We Need To Talk About Birth Trauma\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Bethany](\"https:\/\/sheffieldwire.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/bethany-and-baby-3-787x1024.jpg\")