"Made to feel like a person, not a number"

I’m currently 37 + 2 days pregnant with my first baby at 22 years old and although I’m not the youngest I still feel young and naïve to the whole experience of being pregnant and having a baby.

I currently have gestational diabetes, insulin controlled that was late diagnosed in my pregnancy and baby has been presenting breach. Due to my diabetes I got moved from Braidvalley Ballymena for my scans to Antrim area Hospital. From this time I found it very difficult to cope with the fast pace of the hospital, how busy they are when I was going up for my fortnightly appointments that would have taken AT LEAST a couple of hours wait for an appointment with a diabetic consultant and a consultant who scans me that wouldn’t have last more than 10 minutes.

Every time I was there I felt rushed and overwhelmed at the information I was receiving but took in what I could and was thankful for the midwives who were usually outside the doors as they were always much more approachable.

On what was supposed to be my last visit to outpatients 4, my partner and I waited from 10:10 until 12 when I was finally seen. The both female consultants were lovely and once scanned it was clear baby was still breach and presenting on the 97th percentile. Due to this they thought it best to deliver at 39 weeks via Elective C section. I had already come to terms with this as an option however it again is my first baby and I wanted all the information I could get.

The diabetic doctor and the doctor who done my scan were explaining things to me, however I felt everything was so rushed when they were doing so and in the midst of explaining the risks of the section they were ringing the labour ward to book me a date. I wasn’t consulted on when this would be and just overheard the phone conversation where they confirmed the c section would take place on a specific date.

This made no sense to me as the previous consultant 2 weeks prior had told me usually they take you in around 38/39 weeks when you’re GDM on insulin. However they had booked me in for a section 2 days over my due date. I was so overwhelmed by all this information and didn’t want to cause a fuss so said nothing despite the fact I had anxiety about this decision. (That is a fault of my own.)

My partner and myself came out of the appointment feeling deflated and with a lack of information. The whole experience of visiting outpatients 4 always just felt like I was cattle at a cattle market due to the amount of ladies they had to attend to and the long wait. If it wasn’t for the midwives there I wouldn’t have felt comfortable at all.

However, after my appointment on this particular day I was booked in DOU 1 for an iron transfusion. It was here that a registered midwife called Katie (I’m not sure of her second name) and what I’m assuming was the lady in charge, called Mary, restored my hope and made me feel completely at ease. During my time of getting my transfusion the little room they had clearly added so many personal touches to make you feel at home and relaxed.

Katie and Mary were so lovely and genuinely cared about how I was and how I was feeling and made sure to thoroughly check my notes and information. It was here I explained to Mary that I had been booked in for a c section 2 days over my due date. Mary right away was very concerned with this as she knew I was GDM and insulin controlled. Right away she was on the phone sorting this out for me and within half an hour she had it all changed and had come to realise the doctor had not read my notes properly and had read an old growth chart that said my date was different, and based my section date around this.

Mary sat with me for the duration of my appointment. She was very caring and made me feel at complete ease as she went over every detail of what a section is from where to go, times, steps on what will happen and key information on the section and recovery. She let me take the time to ask any question I wanted and most importantly she kept asking me if I was happy. This meant the world to me as someone who has just felt like a number my whole pregnancy when visiting any of the hospitals etc, as she made me feel like a person expecting her first baby instead.

I wanted to write all of this to simply thank her and Katie (who was also lovely and is clearly learning from the best). If more people were like this lady in their standard of care then a lot of women wouldn’t feel like they are going to the cattle market when they are going to check on their baby’s health and their health. The staff in outpatients 4 in Antrim are overwhelmed and to me it’s due to Coleraine maternity being shut down and they are under too much pressure which is extremely unfair on them all.

To end my experience, a massive thank you to Mary & Katie.