"Positive Overall"

I had my baby here in November and found the experience to be positive overall. I felt well looked after from my booking appointment, right up to giving birth. For the most part, the midwives were lovely and very helpful. Even having to have an emergency c-section, the midwives that I had that morning were amazing and me and my partner felt very calm in what was a stressful situation. The team in surgery were lovely, I felt like I was in the best hands and they were very thorough and explained the process to me, I had a really positive experience despite the circumstances.

The only downside was after giving birth, some of the midwives on the recovery ward were not very understanding. On one occasion, my mum was helping me feed my baby as I was finding it difficult to lift him (he was almost 10lbs and I’d had surgery) - the midwife on the recovery ward abruptly told my to she needed leave despite this, there were no niceties. We understood there were rules in place but at this point all of the other bays were empty. The care at this point of recovery was poor and I was left in a gown that I’d had an epidural in (the evening before) + I’d had a c-section in. It was in an awful state and none of the midwives offered me a clean one, thankfully I was moved and could later shower and change myself. I hadn’t ate in 36 hours and no one offered me anything to eat or drink until my partner asked. We understand everyone is busy but all of the other bays on the ward were empty.

I had my own room that I was moved to and my partner could stay (very grateful for this). I had a two day stay due to complications and although most of the midwives were lovely, some spoke down to my partner / myself when we would ask questions. There are definitely some areas of care that need improvement, I know they are understaffed but some basic needs I.e a clean gown, bedsheets that were not met or offered. I also felt like there was not a lot of communication during handovers, I’d lost a lot of blood during surgery and became anaemic. There were symptoms of this that showed up during all of my observations and anyone new seeing to me had no idea and seemed very panicked. I was waiting on an iron infusion for a long time and couldn’t go home until I’d had this, I then found out that I needed not one but two of these. The midwife who set up my infusion thought I had already had one (but I hadn’t). It wasn’t a big deal and I went back a week after being discharged.

Overall me and baby were well looked after, we understand staffing can be stretched to say the least but we did feel like on some occasions it was down to lack of empathy, or just rudeness. The aftercare was great though, I called a few times over various issues and always got to speak to a midwife on the phone. I would recommend the hospital to a friend as these issues can happen anywhere in the current climate.