New mum’s fury after labouring in Royal Darwin Hospital waiting room for three hours

Despite being told RDH could cope with the additional births from the private hospital, a Darwin mother has shared how she was left to labour in the waiting room for almost four hours.

Tessa Czislowski gave birth to her daughter last weekend. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

A mum who was in active labour for three hours in a waiting room in Royal Darwin Hospital has slammed NT Health’s latest update on maternity services.

As one of the mums who was impacted by the closure of Darwin Private Hospital, Tessa Czislowski’s pregnancy journey with her second child has been anything but smooth sailing.

And it seems, her labour has followed a similar pattern.

After being told that NT Health and Royal Darwin Hospital can cope with the additional births coming through the service, Tessa said her recent experience proves otherwise.

When Tessa’s waters broke on Saturday evening, she rang RDH to let them know she was coming in as she needed to receive antibiotics straight away due to being GBS positive.

By the time Tessa arrived at RDH with her husband at around 8.45pm, she was having one to two contractions every 10 minutes.

The new waiting room in the maternity ward in Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) where Tessa had her ultrasound. Picture: NT Health

She was shown to the new waiting room on the maternity ward which had three other people also sitting waiting but as her contractions hit, Tessa had to leave the room.

“It was very bright, very loud with no privacy,” she said.

“I just said to my husband, I can’t do this in here. I need to get out.”

Tessa found an empty corridor to walk around in until her private obstetrician arrived.

An ultrasound on a waiting room sofa

By this point the waiting room was empty again and Tessa returned to wait for the doctor to find a room to carry out an ultrasound.

But although there were two empty delivery rooms, staff said they were waiting for cleaners to arrive to sweep them.

Although Tessa was a candidate for the downstairs birthing suite, she was told they did not have enough health professionals that day to staff it.

One of the downstairs birthing suites at Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH). Picture: Jayden O'Neill/ NT Health

“(The doctor) came back and she had a bedside ultrasound machine, and she’s like, ‘I’m really, really sorry, I need to do this ultrasound. There’s nowhere for you to go. Can you just lay on this couch?’”

For the next two hours while they waited for a room, they tried to establish Tessa’s contractions but a flow of people getting tea and coffee from the kitchenette made things difficult.

“People just kept on coming in, and it wasn’t private, and I didn’t feel kind of safe,” Tessa said.

“My labour didn’t progress until we got into the delivery suite.”

Tessa was moved to the day patient room for some CTG monitoring before being moved into a delivery suite just after midnight.

By 3am, her daughter was born.

Tessa Czislowski gave birth to her daughter on Sunday morning. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Tessa said the care after arriving at the delivery suite and the staff were “wonderful”.

Having selected the hotel after-care package as well, apart from slight communication issues, Tessa said it has worked well for their family.

But her time in labour has left Tessa feeling “disappointed and really angry”.

Particularly after RDH staff when speaking to this masthead earlier this week, said it was “business as usual”.

“Everything that was communicated was ‘We can cope with the additional numbers’, and they clearly couldn’t,” she said.

“It’s not a public versus private thing. No woman should be labouring for three hours in a waiting room.

“I intend to write when I get home to all the powers that be and hopefully it will mean that it won’t happen to anybody else.”

Originally published as New mum’s fury after labouring in Royal Darwin Hospital waiting room for three hours