"First pregnancy under care of the Lotus Team"

As a first time mum I cannot recommend the Lotus Team enough! 

The idea of the Team is that you’ll ideally have the same midwife for your antenatal appointments, labour and postpartum care. 

I was first under the care of Jess. She did my booking appointment in August and made me feel so reassured and answered all my questions. Jess is a big advocate and supporter of home birth and breastfeeding and was so helpful at educating me in these areas. I can’t recommend her enough! 💛 

Nearer to the end of my pregnancy I had to switch to having Jordan as my midwife due to unforeseen circumstances, but she quickly learned all about me and my story. I discovered I had a few complications in my pregnancy but Jordan was a massive comfort to myself and to my partner as well. She was born to be a midwife! We worked through what options I had for the birth and all the potential outcomes.    

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to have a Lotus midwife at my birth in Antrim Area hospital due to understaffing. I think this shows there is huge demand for a continuity of care system. The midwife I had during my birth in Antrim was worlds apart from the quality of the midwives on the Lotus Team. I felt she did not respect any of my preferences and did not provide any comfort or support. I felt extremely belittled and scared during my labour. I ended up having an emergency C Section. 

After baby was born she was taken away and I had to ask to hold her and ask for skin to skin. I also wasn’t provided with any breastfeeding support in the hospital at all. Luckily I had a lot of information from Jess and had done a lot of my own research otherwise I don’t think I could have fed my baby.  The care in Antrim was overall pretty lacklustre, again I think an issue with understaffing which isn’t surprising after the close of the Causeway. 

Having Jordan calling for my postpartum visits was amazing. She knew all about my pregnancy and felt just like a friend calling round. She confirmed my suspicions that my daughter had a pretty severe tongue tie and arranged to have it cut. This massively aided our feeding journey and I’m still exclusively breastfeeding 4 months on Jordan was also so gentle at removing the dressing from my scar. 

The antenatal yoga classes in the Causeway were also absolutely fantastic. Rosie is fab and the sessions became the main thing I looked forward to in my week towards the end of my pregnancy!