First time mum’s five-day ordeal after North Devon maternity unit closure

A first-time mother from North Devon has described in stark detail how the ongoing closure of the maternity unit at North Devon District Hospital turned the birth of her baby into a prolonged, tiring and stressful experience for her and her family.

Primary school teacher Ali Webb gave birth to baby George on Wednesday, October 28 after a five-day ordeal which saw having her to travel first to Exeter, then on to Taunton, where her baby arrived by emergency C-section.

The drama was compounded on the journey home when the car being driven by husband Jack broke down on the M5 motorway.

Ali, aged 30, shared her story on social media and it has since gone viral, being shared nearly 250 times and liked by 1,500 people.

Now Ali is urging those in charge of making the decisions around the maternity unit’s future “to just listen” to her and the legions of local people campaigning for it to be re-opened as soon as possible.

She has shared her story ahead of the next protest organised by campaign group Maternity Matters, which is staging a peaceful demonstration at Barnstaple Square on Saturday (November 7) from 2pm, to mark three months since North Devon’s Ladywell Unit closed.

The Royal Devon health trust has repeatedly said the closure on August 11 was temporary, due to the inability to recruit senior doctors and it continues to pledge to reopen the unit as soon as it safely can.

Back home near High Bickington, Ali said: “It’s not just about mums. Partners matter, dads matter, babies matter and we have the right to be supported by our local community, not communities far and wide.”

Whilst Ali stressed that the care she had received from midwives had been “superb”, both in Exeter and Taunton, she said the experience as a whole had been “incredibly stressful, confusing, demoralising and physically and emotionally exhausting for both myself and my husband.”

She added: “What should be an exciting and special time in our lives has instead been filled with uncertainty, long waits, a lack of communication and the feeling of being completely out of control of our own birth experience.”

On Thursday, October 22 Ali attended a routine growth scan. She was told that the baby was measuring large and an induction was recommended, which was booked in for the next day at Exeter.

The induction process began at around 1.30pm on Friday, October 23, but halted around 30 hours later, on the Saturday evening.

Ali said: “During this time, we were informed there was a 24-hour delay on the labour ward, meaning it was unlikely that the second stage of the induction - having my waters broken and starting a hormone drip - would begin until Sunday.

“Although frustrated, we tried our best to be understanding of the situation.”

However, by Tuesday, October 27 Ali and Jack were still waiting, with no information about when a transfer to a labour ward would take place.

Jack had been sleeping on the floor until Ali’s parents travelled down with a camp bed for him and there was nowhere for him to even take a shower.

Travelling to Taunton

Ali said: “We were becoming increasingly frustrated, exhausted and anxious, not knowing what was happening or how much longer we would have to wait.”

On that Tuesday morning, after breaking down in tears to the midwife, Ali was offered a transfer to the maternity unit in Taunton, where there was space in the labour ward to continue the second stage of the induction.

She said: “Without hesitation, we agreed. We were so relieved at the thought that things might finally move forward and that we could soon meet our baby boy. We packed up once again and drove even further away from home, hoping that this would finally be the step we had been waiting for.

“We arrived in Taunton at around midday, where the midwives were expecting us. They quickly carried out all my observations, although, because they use a different system to Exeter, my details couldn't simply be transferred across.”

More waiting followed, with George finally arriving in the early hours of the next day via emergency C-section.

M5 breakdown adds to ordeal

But then the story soon took another twist, as Ali explained: “We set off on the one hour 15 minute journey home with our newborn baby, with me still in a lot of discomfort following surgery. Just as we joined the busy M5, our car broke down, leaving us stranded on the hard shoulder.

“Myself and baby had to wait on the other side of the barriers until emergency services arrived to assist us. It was yet another incredibly stressful and frightening situation, adding even more to the mental, emotional and physical exhaustion we'd already been dealing with.”

Another motorist had broken down close by and that driver insisted that the Highways Agency patrol should take care of Ali and her family first, for which she was extremely grateful.

Jack had to wait with the car while the patrolman took Ali to Tiverton services to wait for her father and brother-in-law to collect her. Ali said that by this time, she was “an emotional wreck”, as George needed feeding in such a public place.

She said: “They arrived just under an hour later. Again, that journey from here to there is quite far, but if it happened in Barnstaple they would have been with me in 10 minutes and I would have felt a lot safer, because I would have been in an environment that I knew and I wouldn't have had to have left Jack.”

Having to go so far to give birth has brought other complications – because he was born in Somerset, George’s birth cannot be registered in Devon, meaning another trip to Taunton to complete the formalities.

‘Something needs to change’

Ali and her family are now putting their energy into supporting the campaign to have the Barnstaple unit re-opened.

She has already been in contact with North Devon MP Ian Roome, who has secured an Early Day Motion in Parliament to debate the issue, and has also been asked to speak to the Somerset MNVP (Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership), an NHS-backed, parent-led advisory group.

This group brings together service users (pregnant women, parents, and families) with midwives, doctors, commissioners, and healthcare leaders to review and improve local maternity and neonatal care.

Ali added: “This is not how anyone should have to begin their journey into parenthood. Families deserve access to maternity care closer to home, clear communication, compassionate support and the reassurance that their needs are being heard.

“Something needs to change. The impact of closing Barnstaple's maternity ward needs to be acknowledged, and serious consideration needs to be given to reopening it.”