By Healthcare workers often have set, regular hours, but there’s no telling when someone might need care. In a video on TikTok, a woman named Sumayya claimed her midwife told her to “hurry up” while she was in labor because her shift was about to end.
The post quickly went viral with over 248,000 views. In the caption, she writes that the experience will “traumatize me for life.”
Moving Things Along
Sumayya was in labor with her daughter when the alleged incident occurred.
“When I was in labor with my daughter, and it was time to push, my midwife was telling me to ‘HURRY UP’ as her ‘shift’ was over,” the onscreen caption reads.
@sueomaniiA story that will traumatise me for life ? ##traumatized♬ I Could Be Brown I Could Be Blue I Could Be Violet Sky Octaves – Hiko
“When it was time to deliver the placenta, she was telling me to ‘hush’ and stop screaming. She quickly delivered my ‘placenta’ and was done with her shift.”
She was crying and screaming in pain. “I wasn’t sure how long it should take, because that was my first birth, but it felt fast,” she remembers thinking at the time.
She delivered the child at a hospital in London, but her troubles were just beginning.
“I got home and I remember being in so much pain – I couldn’t sit down.”
Sumayya eventually dismissed the pain as just part of the process. “7 days later I was massaging my stomach…” the video continued.
Shortly after, she noticed there was something “coming out” of her. She showed her husband, and he was “traumatized” before rushing her to the hospital.
“That night, I felt like I was going into labor again – it felt like my insides were falling out of me,” she says in the video.
“When I was examined in triage the nurses were shocked because of what they found…” the on-screen text read.
Sumayya says that the doctors found “retained placenta” inside of her because her midwife didn’t clean up properly. She says the placenta “was the size of my hand”.
“The nurse told me to push because something was coming out – it was just like giving birth again, except this time on no pain relief, at all,” she writes.
A scan revealed that there was additional placenta inside of her. The doctors had to perform surgery to remove the last part.
A retained placenta can lead to serious infection if left untreated. It’s what happens when the placenta is not naturally delivered after the birth of the baby. Experts say the body naturally dispels the placenta after about 30 minutes.
In some cases, a retained placenta can lead to severe blood loss, which can be fatal. Doctors will usually perform an ultrasound to make sure it has been removed to avoid complications.
Sumayya goes on to say that she tried to sue the midwife in question, but she couldn’t because the hospital said retained placentas happen naturally, although they are rare. Studies show retained placentas happen to just 3% of vaginal births.
She also filed a complaint with the hospital, but she never got a response.
Many people came to her defense online. One commenter wrote that the midwife got into the wrong profession “if she wanted to clock off on time.”
Another person chimed in with their own experience of seeing a midwife. “My midwife’s shift was ending when it was time to push. She said to me ‘I am not leaving until we deliver this baby.’ Take her to court!”
Others referenced similar experiences with midwives, calling them “excruciating” and “traumatizing”.
“They failed to take the placenta out of my sister as well, due to which she now has cervical cancer,” another user wrote. “We’re planning on suing the GP and everyone involved as she went to the GP for a year, and they kept dismissing her case and not giving her proper treatment.”
For Sumayya, the procedure kept her from spending time with her newborn daughter when their bond was just developing.
“I wanted to breastfeed my newborn, but I wasn’t able to as I was in hospital most of the time,” she adds.
In the end, everything turned out alright, but Sumayya may never be the same again.
“Thankfully my daughter was fine, but it was a horrendous experience.”
