"The team and facilities were just fantastic"

I’ve had three previous births, all in the labour ward in Aberdeen, all needing my waters broken for me. Whilst not where I wanted to give birth, the environment had improved significantly between my first birth in 2011 and my latest there in 2021 and I had some great midwives with each birth. I consider them all positive births but really wanted to experience the midwife unit. 

For my fourth baby I had moved to Inverurie and was really keen to have my baby here. I had a really straightforward pregnancy and was well supported by my named midwife, Rachel. Rachel took the time to explain all my options for birth to me on more than one occasion and was supportive of my desire to birth in Inverurie. I made my feelings about induction very clear and I was supported in not booking an induction until I was approaching 41 weeks. 

When I was in established labour I called the Inverurie maternity unit and was put through to Rachel, who listened to me and encouraged me to come into the unit. Once examined and found to be 4cm I was shown to the birthing suite and was so relieved to be in such a lovely birthing space, it was a large room with dimmed lighting and we were able to put the radio on and be in the space just me and my husband, with Rachel popping in regularly to check baby's heart rate.

Baby didn’t make an appearance before the shift change but Rachel was lovely and said she would be back on shift that evening and looked forward to hearing how I’d gotten on. At the shift change it was Caroline who attended to us. I had met her a couple of weeks prior at an appointment and she remembered how keen I had been to avoid induction. I was in the thick of contractions when she came in the room but she was a calming presence and my waters went and baby arrived shortly after. 

The team and facilities in Inverurie were just fantastic.

Following birth I stayed the night to establish breastfeeding and was able to have my family come in to visit, and after having previously been on the maternity wards in Aberdeen it was so nice to have a private space this time to be with my baby and introduce her to family. 

Postnatal care was really good too, it just so happened that I mostly saw Laura and it was nice to have that continuity of knowing who was coming in.

It felt very healing to have this experience in Inverurie after really wishing for the relaxed atmosphere of a maternity unit with my previous births - it was everything I had hoped it would be.