"Maternity Services Feedback – First Baby"

Pregnancy & Antenatal Care


I received excellent community care from my midwife Karen throughout my pregnancy. Her wealth of experience and calm, reassuring manner helped me to focus on strengthening my mindset during pregnancy. I felt empowered to trust my body and stay relaxed, largely because of her support.

Access to my Badger notes was another huge positive—it allowed me to come prepared to appointments, track test results, and be a co-decision maker in my own care. This transparency really helped me feel more in control and informed.

A special mention also goes to the student midwives who supported the antenatal classes in August 2024 at Stirling Community Hospital. They were knowledgeable, articulate, and cited recent research, which added depth and credibility to the sessions.

Labour & Delivery


I had an unplanned Category 2a c-section on a Friday night, 36 hours after my waters broke. The consent process was handled exceptionally well. Despite the time pressure, the obstetric and anaesthetic teams remained calm and clear when discussing risks, and I felt able to give informed consent. Having an epidural already in place helped enormously, as I wasn’t in pain and could truly focus.

The anaesthetics team—including the resident doctor, consultant, and anaesthetic nurse—were fantastic. They were thorough in their pre-procedure explanations, and their calm, supportive presence helped ease my anxiety.

Once in theatre, I was impressed by the professionalism and warmth of the whole team. Everyone introduced themselves and explained their roles, which gave me reassurance and a sense of calm. The c-section was swift, and our request to check the baby’s sex ourselves was respected. I was also able to cuddle my baby quite soon after delivery.

A heartfelt thank you to the midwife and student midwife cared for me during those first few hours post-birth. They were so nurturing and helped me establish breastfeeding, which gave me the confidence and foundation to breastfeed exclusively for six months.

Cannulation was the main issue—excluding the anaesthetics team who succeeded first time, I experienced over eight attempts with large grey cannulas and no numbing. One cannula hit a nerve, causing weeks of wrist pain, and another burst due to a blood pressure cuff being used on the same arm.

Recovery Ward


Unfortunately, my experience on the postnatal recovery ward was the low point of my care. I was transferred to the ward around 2am, just four hours after major surgery, feeling disoriented and exhausted. From that point, I felt largely unsupported.

The ward environment was extremely challenging: bright lights remained on from early morning, and overnight noise from snoring visitors and crying babies made sleep virtually impossible. As a new parent, not yet familiar with my baby’s cries, it was a distressing and overwhelming environment.

Post-surgery, a cannula placed in my thumb/wrist was left in for over 12 hours, limiting my ability to hold my baby. I ended up removing it myself after no response to repeated requests for removal.

Pain relief was delayed, likely due to short staffing, and on one occasion I waited 40 minutes for help after buzzing for assistance. During my stay, I wasn’t directly seen by a midwife again after being handed over to the ward from delivery—this lack of follow-up and visibility was concerning. My wound was not checked aside from when I initially arrived on the ward. However, the anaesthetics resident doctor did come to check that I had no side effects from the previous days epidural/spinal which was much appreciated and very reassuring for this aspect of the procedure.

One staff interaction also severely impacted my confidence with feeding. When I asked for support with latching, the staff member forcefully held my baby’s head and insisted on a set minimum feeding time, making me feel like I was doing everything wrong. I nearly gave up breastfeeding altogether in those first 24 hours, and only continued thanks to my husband’s encouragement and online resources. I wasn’t offered any input from the infant feeding team whilst in hospital as a first time mum, which I’ve since learned is available (perhaps not on weekends?) and may have made a huge difference.

The catering team from facilities deserves a mention—they were friendly, attentive, and ensured there was plenty of tea, coffee and snacks to help keep our energy up.

A final note: we did not bring a car seat into hospital as it was part of a fixed-base system. On discharge, we were met with unexpected resistance to carrying our baby out without a removable car seat. While I understand and support safety recommendations, they should not be presented as mandatory when they are not, and families should be supported in making informed choices.

Postnatal Community Care


Once home, the care we received from the community team was a stark and welcome contrast. Karen continued to support us, and the visiting teams were incredibly helpful. We understood the postnatal pathways clearly, knew who to contact for what, and felt well supported during those first critical days at home.