"If we decide to have another child we will not be returning"

Unfortunately, baby didn’t want to come around due date so ended up getting induced. Got the date & time to go in all good. Had a lovely room to ourselves & got settled in & the induction process started & told what would happen etc.

First night all fine. Day 2 came & we got given breakfast & that we would get taken to the labour ward at 10am to start the next phase. It came to lunchtime & we hadn’t seen anyone or given any information on what was going on. Mid afternoon, decided to go for a walk as was fed up staying in the room, went to inform the staff on duty to then be told we should have had someone come & tell us we are getting moved to labour ward & to get ready.

Packed up our things & at 6pm still sitting waiting! Felt as though we had been pushed aside & forgotten about. My husband went to ask what was going on. 30 minutes later we finally went to labour ward as the cut off time for our first phase was nearly up.

Finally got to the labour ward & settled in. Went to get an IV put in & the staff member popped the vein which bruised & made my hand swell. Ended up getting this inserted by a different member of staff in the arm. Tried to break waters after another 2hrs waiting and again no information given to us to what was the plan etc. once waters broken it was a waiting game.

Started getting contractions & called midwife for some pain relief to be told I wasn’t having contractions. After checking the monitor they turned and confirmed that I actually was, and said they'd go and get some pain relief. They left the room and we didn’t see them again for another 4hrs!

Luckily we did take in our own pain relief so had that. At 3am the pain was getting unbearable & my husband went to get someone. Midwife came in & checked me over & gave an injection to help get some rest. Told my husband to get his bed ready so he could also have rest but the bed had no plugs to sort it so they brought him a camp bed which was helpful.

At 6am the pain was again unbearable & I asked for pain relief to be told I couldn’t have any due to the injection I got 3hrs prior! When the next shift came on we got a lovely staff member who came in to see how we were & gave us a run down on what would happen that day as was getting offered the drip to try and move things on.

It was lovely to actually have someone inform us of what to expect. We had a lovely midwife who made us feel calm & comfortable. She monitored us from another space & it quickly became apparent something wasn’t right & asked if she could bring the consultant in to speak to us also which was fine.

Turns out babies heartbeat was dropping with every contraction & recommended an emergency c section or we could hold off for a little while but no promises could be made. We said we would like the recommended & safest option which was the c section. This all happened very quickly & became very overwhelming but our midwife kept me calm & comforted me. My husband went to get scrubs on & off to theatre we went.

All staff in the theatre room were exceptional & kept us updated on what was happening. Our little bundle arrived & unfortunately wasn’t breathing so got rushed away to Special Care Baby Unit and my husband went too. After a while I got to see them both again & was given info on what happened. The care overnight was amazing & we got well looked after. 

Unfortunately the first couple of days were a bad experience for us especially for first time parents and first impressions count but our midwife & the after care team were exceptional & we cannot thank them enough.

There was a mix up with the babies weight once we got discharged as someone got the numbers the wrong way around but luckily we brought the cot card home with us & our home visit midwife managed to get this all sorted. Our health visitor also got given the wrong details of the birth!

After being felt like we was pushed aside & what felt like being accused of not having contractions & the mix up with the notes, if we decide to have another child we will not be returning to the BGH.