Woman Forced to Give Birth on Couch in a Hospital Waiting Room Due to Overcrowding and ‘Staffing Problems’

A pregnant woman had to give birth on a couch in a hospital waiting room because the hospital was overcrowded and short-staffed.

The woman, whose identity has not been shared publicly, told News 9 Australia that she went to Westmead Hospital in Sydney, Australia, on July 31 after her water broke while she was walking her dog.

She said that after being admitted, she and her husband were told to stand in a hallway.

“At one point, I felt as if the baby [wasn’t] moving much, so I asked to get monitored. So they [put us] in a waiting room, and there were two couples already in the waiting room monitoring their baby’s heartbeat,” she said in a video interview with News 9 Australia.

When her labor quickly progressed, a hospital midwife acted fast. She laid towels on a couch and helped the woman give birth there.

“I feel really bad about it, but she kicked out everyone from that waiting room,” the woman recalled.

The woman gave birth safely, but there were still no beds available for her in the maternity ward. She was later moved to the gynecology ward at Westmead Hospital.

“The midwife who was in charge told me that there are 17 people in this gyno unit and there are only three [employees], so that ratio is very off. That was my exposure to the staffing problems,” the woman said.

A midwife, speaking anonymously to News 9 Australia about the incident, said the hospital’s “conditions are the worst [they’ve] ever been.”

“We need more midwives, but who would want to work for or value a hospital that doesn’t value or listen to them under harsh working conditions?” she added.

In a statement to PEOPLE, a spokesperson for the Western Sydney Local Health District said, “Over the evening of 31 July, Westmead Hospital’s birthing unit was very busy and experienced a higher than average number of births with 24 women in the birthing unit.”

“Birthing can be unpredictable, with patient needs and clinical urgency fluctuating rapidly due to the spontaneous nature of labor and delivery,” the representative continued.

The spokesperson also thanked the midwives on staff that day for their professionalism and dedication.