Recalling traumatic labour at hospital

I was reading in the Shropshire Star of the very distressing experience that the parents of the late Ellis James Carrington went through at Shrewsbury hospital.

I have read other stories like this and each time, I look at my seven year old son and consider myself very lucky. When I went into labour at Shrewsbury Hospital in April 2000, my labour was very slow and didn't progress well at all.

After about 20 hours the consultant was testing for oxygen around my son's brain - I was terrified.

I can remember lying on the bed crying "please get the baby out, please get the baby out - I would like a Caesarean" but nobody listened.

It was my first baby and you have to trust the professionals, but I never would again. He just kept saying that things were OK. After several more hours, I was so tired and couldn't push so they finally agreed to take me to theatre.

Here they still held off from a Caesarean and were forcing me to push and they used forceps.

When Joseph was born, they whisked him away to the side - I didn't hear him cry and I hadn't been told if I had a boy or a girl. I was lying with my husband asking if he was alive or dead.

After what seemed like a lifetime they lay Joseph on me for about three seconds and took him away to special care.

Joseph was in special care for a week, had difficulty fee-ding and was in pain for the first 12 months of his life.

His head was misshapen from the forceps and this, coupled with his traumatic entry to the world made him a very unsettled baby.

But my baby is here, I am one of the lucky ones.

I wonder how many other parents who gave birth at Shrewsbury feel the same?

Sue Hedges, Telford