"Every element of our pregnancy care has been 10/10"

Having had my first baby in Glasgow in 2018 I thought I had a good handle on what to expect from maternity care, however from my very first phonecall with my community midwife Karen I felt the care was so different, so personal.

I never saw the same midwife twice in my first pregnancy but in Ayrshire I knew I could get in touch with Karen any time. I had a visit to the early pregnancy unit & again felt cared for & listened to.

I was offered acupuncture for my migraine & sickness from week 14 - week 24 of my pregnancy which was amazing.

In late August I had my first trip to the Maternity Assessment Unit (MAU) who took amazing care of me & bump as I was very dehydrated and eventually diagnosed with COVID. I was kept on the ward for 4 days and the amazing midwives and doctors kept me so well cared for, I had a couple more visits to MAU and they were fantastic every time and caught the weird developments that appeared later in my pregnancy, so quickly. 

Finally the amazing team who were involved in our induction & labour. Scheduled just before Xmas the team got our induction started and made us feel welcome...we walked the halls upstairs & down in the maternity unit and were met by familiar faces & smiles & encouraging words as we worked to get baby on the move. Finally we went down to labour suite at midnight and were met by Katie who made our birth as positive & wonderful as we'd hoped it would be. From getting fairy lights up and getting us settled in, she advocated for us as we used movement and hypnobirthing rather than progressing to further induction interventions and she was brilliant support to both of us. I was so glad baby arrived just before she started to do her handover in the morning. 

We also had fantastic care on the post-natal ward and with the community midwives who were on call over Christmas. Jen in particular was a beautiful ray of sunshine to see every day and I was so glad we got to see Karen again before we got discharged.

Overall our care from every element of our pregnancy care has been 10/10 and both my husband and I wish we could pop back in to see them all because they as a team are just fantastic and made us feel so welcome. Thank you Ayrshire Maternity Unit so much.