A hospital has introduced new rules for pregnant drug addicts after a new mum was seen having sex on a maternity ward.

The incident, which shocked expectant mums sharing the ward, took place at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

It was one of a number of incidents involving drug addict women on the wards.

Mum-to-be Helen Sutcliffe said she feared for her safety while being treated alongside women with drug and alcohol problems who were either pregnant or had given birth.

She has spoken of her horror at the incidents, all of which involved drug addict patients and their visitors, which happened during her eight-week stay in the maternity unit.

They included:

a fight between two patients

a row between a patient and her husband

a visitor vomiting in the corridor

people injecting drugs

A couple having sex in a cubicle.

A hospital spokesman confirmed all the incidents took place.

Mrs Sutcliffe has revealed how a fellow patient saw a couple having sex through a gap in curtains drawn around a bed, and she and other patients were sent threats from one of the culprits.

Now drug and alcohol-dependent women who are admitted to the hospital have to sign a form to say they will behave appropriately, otherwise they will be asked to leave.

Mrs Sutcliffe, whose first child is due in January, went to BRI in August for bed-rest because she had previously suffered two miscarriages.

She said she and two other women were so frightened after a row broke out between a woman and her husband in their four-bed ward that they threatened to discharge themselves.

The 26-year-old, from Bradford, who was too scared to be fully identified in our photographs, said: "We were frightened. We said we wouldn't go back until he was out of there so they kicked him out.

"Just one thump in my stomach and I could have lost this baby as well.

"My husband Carl just wanted me to come home. He was concerned for my safety."

And she described how, after she and other women complained about inappropriate behaviour, veiled threats were made that baby equipment could be tampered with and their husbands could be followed home.

She said one woman and her husband were so worried she went to another hospital.

"If it wasn't for the midwives I couldn't have coped with it all," said Mrs Sutcliffe. "They were absolutely fantastic. But they shouldn't have to put up with that.

"The day the fight broke out they had to get two nurses from the delivery suite to help."

An initiative for drug and alcohol-dependent pregnant women was launched at BRI earlier this year in partnership with GPs and social services.

It aims to encourage them off drugs and alcohol and provide the most appropriate care for their babies, which includes putting them on main maternity wards.

A spokesman for Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs BRI, said it would not tolerate behaviour likely to cause offence and distress to others.

"While we are grateful for the praise from Helen Sutcliffe for the care she has received from us, we have every sympathy with her and her fellow patients and with our own staff, who were offended by the totally inappropriate way in which these people behaved.

"All those responsible were spoken to by us and warned about their behaviour. The two women patients who were involved were subsequently transferred to the community where their care was continued appropriately. We apologise to other patients.

"Since this incident took place in the summer, we have drawn up a special agreement between the hospital and those pregnant women who are admitted for a detoxification programme.

"This 'contract' outlines the hospitals responsibilities to the patient, but also the woman's responsibilities to the hospital and to fellow patients.

"It focuses on their, their partners' and their visitors' behaviour while under our care.

"In particular we demand that they do not bring drugs or alcohol onto the wards; do not behave in a way that could cause a problem to other patients or staff; and at all times respect the privacy of other women on the ward.

"It warns that if this agreement is broken, we have no other option but to act in the interests of others and to ask them to leave the unit."

He said the Trust is also only admitting one or two patients on a detoxification programme to a ward at any one time rather than the three or four which had previously had been the case.

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