Singleton Hospital maternity report reveals ‘concerning’ care

The parents of a child left with disabilities for life due to hospital failures that turn their birth say that lessons have not been learned.

Sian’s son and Rob Channon, Gethin, was born at Swansea Singleton Hospital in 2019 and says his life was “destroyed before touching her own breathing” after staying with a serious brain injury.

It occurs as a report on the maternity of the hospital and the neonatal services found that pregnant women were left in childbirth or had to give birth outside the appropriate areas, and some mothers said they decided to have no more children as a result of their experiences.

The Swansea Bay Health Board apologized to parents with a “bad experience” and said it focused on strengthening their services.

Llais, which represents patients in Wales, based their report on more than 500 experiences of maternity people and neonatal services at Swansea Singleton Hospital.

The report, made approximately several months at the end of 2024, listened to safety failures, quality of care and respect at almost all stages.

Many families felt ignored or unable to raise groups and Llais could not find anyone who shared “a completely positive experience of their care.”

The Health Board insisted that several changes have been made, but Llais said that improvements of “clinical and leadership” were needed.

The most serious concerns in the report revolve around mothers who felt that the safety of their babies could have been “at risk”, and Llais heard “distressing stories” or women who stayed alone in childbirth and fail to recognize and treat infections.

Channon said it was horrible to know that Gethin’s situation was “avoidable.”

“As a result of catastrophic failures, he stayed with disabilities for life. A severe brain injury that has briefly waited for his life and left him really fighting day by day.

“Gethin can’t walk. Gethin can’t move on his own. He feeds through a stomach button. Completely dolphia of other people for every aspect of his life.”

Mrs. Channon said it was very difficult for them to go anywhere where they see other children.

“You can’t help comparing children of Gethin’s age and asking you why your child is not running and splashing in the sea.”

The couple, who found out for the first time about what went wrong during the birth duration of Gethin in 2022, said that furious in 2025 “shows that lessons have been learned.”

A total of 76% of the people who participated in the survey reported a negative experience or identified failures in the quality of their care, even feeling like being in “a conveyor belt” or “losing in a system.”

Several women said they were not full of monitoring and that they had to press for exams.

A mother felt “like a meat slab” after being “covered with blood.”

She added: “I had a person who took my clothes, another inserting a catheter. I was naked and discovered. My catheter was in 26 hours. I had a horrible experience and I left.”

A mother said: “This experience is one of the main reasons why I will not have more children. I can’t go through all that again.”

Another said: “At birth they checked me for two hours. I arrive in the bathroom and classify the emergency cable: I cooled in the bathroom cube.”

In 2023 and 2024, there will be a separate dependent review of the maternity services of the Health Board, after serious concerns about maternity services will be recorded in 2023 and 2024, it will be published in the summer.

Llais said he wanted to give more families the opportunity to share his experiences.

Llais said it was a group that only 48% of respondents felt involved in decisions about their care, given the importance of informed consent and shared decision making.

Many respondents felt “pressurized” that their babies are induced without a complete discussion of risks, benefits and alternatives.

Althegh, the report heard examples of personnel that provided compassionate, professional and support attention, discovered that the thesis was often linked to details.

Others described a “derogatory” culture with a woman who felt “judged” after asking for a bathroom, and it was also “is not the hilton” to ask for a pillow.

The report said that “a consistent and deeply worrying issue” were not listed, even when they raised serious groups.

A mother said she was in the pinch to take paracetamol and “rest” when he called a consultant worried about the small movement of his son not born after a car accident.

She said: “I later discovered that an accident is one of the main causes of a placental detachment. This is how we are really lost.

Inappropriate or pain relief was also a frequent complaint, since many women who describe should feel that they were reacting exaggerating or imagining things.

The bee of the woman included that tolerates that they had no pain, Bee erroneously said that they were not in the process of giving birth or being questioned about why they needed pain relief immediately after stitches.

Only 53% of respondents reported that postnatal attention was “positive”, while 21% identified poor attention, including careless sensation, without support and even insecure.

“I had to walk two rooms to get to my baby after surgery [then] I collapsed at the reception counter, “said a respondent.

Some women talked about not being able to reach their newborn due to lack of assistance after having caesarean sections.

“I couldn’t get to my baby. They told me:” You’re the mother, we don’t have to do everything for you, “said a respondent.

Some women with babies in the neonatal intensive care unit said they left to handle their own recovery and could not see their babies.

Some women said the report the stereotypes affected their attention, and black women described to be perceived as “aggressive” and others who feel “invisible.”

Some who spoke English as a second language said they found it difficult to understand the information.

A new mother, a health professional, said she was warned complaining that her attention could threaten her ability to practice medicine in the United Kingdom, which felt with a severe postnatal depression and the collapse of her marriage.

Llais said he recognizes the concentration of the health board of the scale and the nature of the bad care and the commitment to use the report and the independent review findings to learn and inform regularly about the performance.

He has also asked the Galeses to encourage the development of a national approach to support those damaged by poor motherhood care.

Medwin Hughes, president of Lais, said: “What is needed now is a continuous leadership throughout the system to ensure that these experiences are heard and acted.”

The executive director of the Health Board, Abi Harris, said the organization was “completely focused on strengthening our services and the Llais report recognizes many of the improvements that have been made.”

“We will respond completely to all the recommendations of all these important reports together and make sure that we learn and act on them,” he added.

President Jan Williams apologized and said she was grateful for the report and did not “underestimate how difficult it will be for people who have had a negative experience of our services to revive that while contributed.”

The Welsh government said his main concern was the well -being of mothers and babies.

In a statement, he said: “considerable work is ongoing to improve the security and quality of maternity services in Swansea Bay, but as the Llais report indicates, there is even more to do to improve experiences for all women.”

He added that he had commissioned an evaluation of the safety and quality of all maternity units in Wales to “measure the impact of recent interventions carried out.”