Maternity care at the North Tees “traumatic” hospital

A mother who says that she was left in chronic pain a year after childbirth called for a NHS trust to be put to special measures.

Niki Cotson, 31, gave birth in April 2024 to the North Tees Hospital in Stockton before living what she believes to be a bad care.

Miss Cotton, who has raised more than 700 signatures to her petition, calling for special measures to be imposed on North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, said: “My work and my postnatal care was traumatic.”

The hospital said it was always “dedicated to ensuring safe and quality care for all our patients” and that it continued to try to respond to any concern raised.

In the last inspection of Care Quality Commission (CQC) in 2022, maternity and hospital received a note “require improvement”.

Miss Cotton said that despite not being in established work, its waters were artificially broken for which she says that she has received no adequate explanation.

She said: “After birth, I was promised a spine to manage my pain, but it was removed without explanation.

“Instead, I have been given dihydrocodeine during breastfeeding, without any risk warning.

“My baby became excessively sleepy, was ill -nourished and then developed complications.”

After their release, the 31-year-old said that she had never received a postpartum check.

Now, a little more than a year later, Miss Cotton said she lived with chronic pain, prolapse, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue.

She said her son had continued to fight health problems, including digestive problems.

Other women showed up to support her and shared their experiences in Stockton maternity.

Nikki Stainsby, 35, from Hartlepool, thought about her “horrible” experiences when she gave birth in October 2020.

She described to be taken to a neighborhood an hour after giving birth and bleeding, then left in the same drafs stained with blood for 12 hours.

“It was only when I said that I got up and changed them that they were finally changed and that there was no offer to help pain,” she said.

Miss Stainsby received stitches immediately after birth, but weeks later, she continued to tear them.

She added: “I returned to the doctors, who sent me to a gynecologist who told me that they were wrong and I should have them open and re-and re-and re-and re-and re-and re-and re-and re-and re-and re-play.

“It was horrible and my mood during this period was horrible.”

A spokesperson for North Tees Hospital Trust said: “We continue to offer open communication lines to try to respond to the concerns raised.

“The trust strives to support any complainant who raises concerns with regard to our organization.

“We encourage to work with our patient experience team to ensure that individual cases are treated appropriately.

“We are always dedicated to ensuring safe and quality care for all our patients.

“We continue to work in close collaboration with the quality of care committee to ensure that all the actions identified during our inspection in 2022 have been promulgated.”

The NHS England has been approached to comment.