I recently gave birth to my daughter in SWAH in Enniskillen. Due to a huge amount of births over a period of a number of days which fell in the days after my due date my planned induction was postponed, however my waters broke spontaneously the next day.
The process of being seen in foetal assessment to confirm waters breaking and the process of then being admitted to the maternity ward was a difficult one. Understandably the ward was incredibly busy but as a woman in early labour, I found this difficult and upsetting having sat in corridors, continuously leaking amniotic fluid over a period of 5 hours.
However, when I was finally given my room my experiences began to get a lot better. I found I was in a substantial amount of pain in the middle of the night and due to visiting rules my partner had gone home so I was alone. I was given paracetamol and told I wasn’t really in labour, it hadn’t even started yet, and it would be a long process, which I found discouraging considering how much pain I knew I was in.
2 hours later I called the night midwife again to ask for help with the pain again, who then called a midwife from labour ward to examine me. From this moment on my entire experience became incredible. The midwife who came from Labour ward was an absolute Angel. She found I was 4, nearly 5cms and took me straight to labour ward and immediately reassured me I had done so well so far and would get pain relief in minutes.
She let me call my partner to come in. She kept me so calm and validated how I felt. She gave me her opinion on how to best progress my labour and best manage my pain at the time and I felt totally confident in her knowledge, opinion and plan for us.
Later her colleague joined us and helped me through my labour, coaching me how to use the gas and air, encouraging me, keeping me in the loop, encouraging my hypnobirthing and supporting my partner too. I felt so confident with these ladies and couldn’t have progressed as quickly or as well without them.
When the shift changed at 8am I had two midwives - I can’t remember their names either, but again both were second to none. My partner explained that I am better when I am informed what is going on and they kept me included in every decision. The student midwife stayed by my side the entire time, encouraging me, reassuring me, it felt like she’d known me my whole life.
I had a natural birth, with no complications at all and a healthy baby at the end. I know none of this could have been achieved without the 4 midwives in labour ward who cared for me, my partner and my baby. We are so incredibly grateful.
"None of this could have been achieved without the midwives"
About: South West Acute Hospital / Maternity care South West Acute Hospital Maternity care Enniskillen BT74 6DN
Posted by Mjoe95 (as ),
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