"Thank you so so much for giving me the most amazing labour experience"

I recently gave birth to my first baby and wanted to thank the midwives who looked after me.

I called triage twice from home during the morning as I was contracting regularly. I was told to come into triage but when I arrived they moved me straight to midwife unit at AMH as I was in active labour.

Katie met me there and introduced herself, she was lovely, calm and friendly which added to the relaxing environment of the midwife led unit. The wallpaper was lovely with the rainbows (our baby is a rainbow baby so it was very fitting).

My husband had to park the car so I wanted to wait for him to return before being examined, Katie was more than happy with this and my request to wait for pain relief until he was back too.

From there I was found to be 6cm so we settled in for the labour ahead. We closed blinds, set up battery candles and our playlist, it was such a calming environment and I feel so blessed to have laboured there. Katie checked on us regularly and looked after my husband too! A few HCSW also came in and were very friendly, sorry we can't remember their names! 

The shift changed and Kirby looked after us from there along with a student midwife who were both just as lovely and supportive. 

Sadly baby was in the wrong position so we ended up with forceps but that was after a lot of effort from everyone to avoid that, even though I was exhausted, they kept trying everything to give me the birth I'd dreamed of.

The surgical team were great too, explaining everything, the anaesthetist was great in particular! In surgery everyone was very reassuring and Kirby was by my side and told us we had a little boy when he came out, which was in our birth plan to find out the gender together from the midwife. 

Afterwards we had great care in the recovery room, another amazing HCSW, I can't remember her name sadly as she was soo lovely. Katie and her actually saw me on the ward the next day and checked in on me which was so sweet they remembered me!

Thank you so so much to everyone for giving me the most amazing labour experience, I felt so empowered and able to trust my body and not feel scared. I only wish I could have had him without forceps but maybe next time!!