I knew something was wrong, Hall said. I was made to feel like a nuisance. They put a lot of it down to me being a paranoid mother' so I was never taken seriously. The next night, she went into labour. Terrified, she called the stand-in midwife she had been assigned. She was told to wait until her scheduled induction a day later. All she told me was to take some Panadol, have a shower and go back to bed, Hall said.
By the time Hall got to the hospital, her son's heart rate was worryingly fast and she couldn't feel him moving. It wasn't until a shift change six hours later that medical staff decided to perform an emergency caesarean. By the time Hall's son, Koah, was born that evening, one of his lungs had collapsed and he had inhaled meconium, or infant faecal matter.
When a paediatrician came to give her an update, the trauma of Hall's experience was compounded. He was going through an emotional challenge that heightened the overall anxiety about her son's condition, showcasing the need for better communication and support for mothers during critical health crises.
#healthcare-reform #maternal-health #patient-advocacy #aboriginal-issues #emergency-medical-response
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