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– He could not have been born at a worse time, says Cecilia Kosanetzky Ingulstad (31) to Dagbladet.
On April 20, their first child, Manuel, was born in Ullevål hospital, just over a month after the life-changing pandemic.
To ensure that her husband could attend the delivery, the soon-to-be three-year-old family had lived in near isolation in Majorstua’s apartment in Oslo, a few steps from Ullevål hospital. Tours were held at the cemetery and food was ordered at the door and then disinfected.
NOT ONLY: Cecilia Ingulstad says she knows several new mothers who feel they had to fend for themselves at the hospital. In Majorstua’s apartment in Oslo, she has spent countless hours discovering what maternity leave should really look like and what rights she has as a new mother. Photo: Kristin Svorte
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When the big day came, they were both healthy and the man was allowed to deliver. After being allowed to be a father for a couple of hours, he had to leave the hospital, as dictated by infection control rules, and Cecilia was left alone.
– As soon as he came out, I lived and he lived, so they didn’t really do anything else. Nobody asked me how I was. They just didn’t have time, says Cecilia.
Born – dead of crown
– All alone
A recent survey by the Midwives Association shows that there is more activity than usual in Norwegian maternity wards. The survey shows huge shortcomings, which have worsened in recent years. Fewer resources for accompanying services, greater work pressure and greater sick leave, according to the Midwives Association.
– I think this is difficult, because I have a bad impression of midwives. But it’s certainly not easy to do a good job when you don’t have the time. It’s certainly not easy for them to be in that situation, says Cecilia.
At three in the evening, three hours after becoming a mother for the first time, Cecilia was transferred to the maternity ward.
– I thought someone was going to ask me how I was, but no one spoke to me.
When an employee stopped by the double room to look for the other mother who was lying there, she asked for new clothes.
– You feel quite fresh after childbirth. Then I only got a reprimand and a message that there were clothes that I could pick up myself in the closet. But I arrived in the middle of the night and no one had told me how the routines worked. So it went on all the time. It always bothered me when I asked for something, even food.
LITTLE FOCUS ON MOTHER: Cecilia Ingulstad believes that very little attention is paid to the mother after delivery and that health professionals should improve in asking difficult questions. Photo: Kristin Svorte
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Cecilia says she was lucky and had little problems with breastfeeding. She still felt insecure and wanted someone to have time to talk to her and guide her.
– Then they told me to watch Swedish videos on breastfeeding on my phone. I only felt like one thing. After childbirth, you are incredibly vulnerable and had not slept in 36 hours. Still, he was completely alone.
– I was ashamed that it was so difficult to love my first child
– Little consideration for the mother
Finally she asked to be transferred to the maternity hotel. However, the experience wasn’t any better there, and no matter what he contacted employees about, he felt like they didn’t have time.
– You are not yourself and cannot take care of your own needs. It wasn’t right and I always had the feeling that something was wrong.
– Did you tell someone?
– No, because you don’t understand it in motherhood. Then I spent a lot of time figuring out what maternity leave is and if what happened was correct. Was not. You think that you should be cared for when you are in the hospital, and not that you have to familiarize yourself with the Norwegian Health Directorate guidelines for maternity stays to ensure that you receive the follow-up you should have.
Even when she got home, she felt like she was completely left to herself. Cecilia had to arrange the arrangement with the health station herself and was not allowed to speak to a midwife, as one has the right.
– It is a good program for monitoring babies, but the mother is not taken into account. In the pandemic, I also have the impression that no one has thought about the mother’s mental health and how they should take care of us.
Multiple people giving birth during the corona pandemic: – Many have been alone too long
– No one asked about the important thing
When it was time for a six-week check-up, it was finally an hour for the mother to follow up. That didn’t happen, she says.
– I stood in the street outside crying and I was so disappointed that no one asked about things that were important, such as how I was with myself, and that it was planned that I myself would have to ask about everything that was difficult. I longed for someone to see me.
FOR BRY: After becoming a mother for the first time, Cecilia Ingulstad experienced that she was a nuisance every time she asked or asked for something. Photo: Kristin Svorte
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In the next class at the health center, she shared how she felt and how she had felt during her maternity leave.
– Then two different health nurses told me to put it in a drawer and that it didn’t help to be angry. But there must be room to talk to someone about the fact that you were completely alone after the delivery and no one was there for you.
– Eventually I thought it was just me who hadn’t asked enough or was too sensitive. I also felt that everyone should participate in the workday and be tough, and read articles in the newspaper that people gave birth alone and were doing very well. That you had to be a superwoman.
Mental health and pregnancy
Not only
Cecilia says it wasn’t until she met the maternity group that she realized that she wasn’t the only one having this experience.
The Oslo patient and user advocate has received complaints from several women with stories similar to Cecilia’s. Therefore, they requested a meeting with the hospital.
Talk about dramatic birth
– The background was precisely that, that there were several mothers who thought that they had not been sufficiently followed in the delivery, says the ombudsman for patients and users in Oslo and Akershus, Anne-Lise Kristensen, to Dagbladet.
Kristensen says the complaints were received sympathetically by Ullevål Hospital.
– They expressed understanding that some felt this way, especially during childbirth, due to changes in work tasks and lack of personnel. Fathers or co-mothers are usually present during maternity leave and do a lot of things. When they weren’t there, the staff had to take over these tasks, Kristensen says.
The acting head of the Aase Pay department in the OUS Maternity Department writes in an email to Dagbladet that the department receives several complaints related to maternity and maternity care over a year, and that there is a slight reduction in complaints for the current year compared to last year.
– It is sad to hear that women who have given birth experience maternity care with poor follow-up, poor guidance, and empathy. Good information, including good orientation and follow-up, is important for all women and families, which will ensure a good start for the new family, Pay says.
– Scary and exciting
She says that there is normal operation in the maternity ward and there is the same capacity and competence available as in other parts of the year. There are also few employees in quarantine, so this has little effect on operations.
– Have you made any changes to the squad since then, to make it a better time to follow up on those who have given birth?
– As a result of increased work pressure, the maternity ward was filled with eight new positions in the fourth quarter of 2019. Financial allocations for the maternity wards are based largely on the number of births. Annually in 2020, it appears that we will have a total of approximately 400 fewer births than in 2019. As a result of the decrease in activity, no additional positions have been added in 2020.
