A mother of three has made an official complaint against Leeds General Infirmary after a hospital bed collapsed while she was giving birth.
Linda Makin said she, her baby Jasmine and a hospital midwife ended up "in a heap" on the floor after sliding off the bed. She said chronic understaffing and equipment failure made the birth of her daughter a traumatic experience.
The hospital trust said it took complaints seriously but did not accept there was a shortage of midwives. In a statement, Leeds Hospitals NHS Trust said: "Last year we recruited 10 additional midwives. Over 8,500 women a year deliver in Leeds and the vast majority enjoy a very positive experience."
But Mrs Makin, who had her two other children at the same hospital, said she found the experience "incredibly traumatic".
She said: "The whole bed went up on a slope, I slid down, Jasmine slid below me and luckily I didn't slide on top of her. The midwife fell to the floor, she caught Jasmine and my husband caught me so I didn't fall onto the baby. Jason had to ring for somebody to come and sort out the situation because we were all just in a heap on top of each other."
The mother, who lives with her family in Horsforth, also said baby Jasmine was not tagged or weighed and there was confusion about the exact time of her birth. She said she was urged by a midwife to make a complaint against the hospital.
She said: "We kept getting told how busy they were, how understaffed they were, how they were pushed to their very limits, how they were trying desperately to get things done for us and for everybody there. But they simply couldn't manage all the tasks they were meant to do, and they were stretching themselves so far."
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