"Pregnancy & Birth Experience"

I had my son last year  following IVF treatment. Prior to this I had several miscarriages, so it was a very nerve wracking initial first trimester which did extend beyond. I did not need to use the Early Pregnancy Unit which I was very grateful for as in my time with previous pregnancies I had a very poor experience on many occasions with them and had staff members be very abrupt and non sympathetic to my situation.

Firstly I would like to add that the care I received from my Community Midwife Carey from the beginning until after birth was absolutely incredible. She went over and above on several occasions to reassure me and put me at ease, along with the incredible aftercare following the birth pushing through referrals and prescriptions to help my recovery. I cannot express enough gratitude for this. 

I did have to come in to the assessment unit on several occasions and each time the staff were incredibly supportive no matter how busy things were. I feel I had appropriate care during my pregnancy and additional check ups / scans on my baby’s growth. Doctor Allison explained things really well and I was grateful for her assistance towards the end of my pregnancy. I also really appreciated the fact that she popped in to check on me on the maternity observation ward as she was working and saw I had given birth which was lovely considering I know how busy her role must be.

I was inducted and the staff who cared for me were all very attentive. My baby was very sleepy whilst being monitored so I did require extra monitoring but they were very cautious and explained all checks thoroughly and why they were doing these which kept me included in my care.

I feel where I did not have a positive experience  was when I was moved to the labour room to have my waters broken. The midwife who was looking after me attempted to break my waters and was struggling. During this there was a pop and what felt like a gurgling ripple inside of me. I asked the midwife if this was my waters breaking, their response was -  You felt that? No that wasn’t your waters, I’m not sure what that was, I have never had that happen before.

The midwife asked their colleague to attempt to break the waters. I watched the first midwife walk away to get cleaned up and could see from their face they were visibly shaken by whatever had popped. It was very frightening in that circumstance to not know what had happened or if this would have any impact on my baby, still to this day I have no answer what this could have been which is unsettling.

There was a lot going on following my waters breaking and things did move very quickly. I feel there was a loss of control during my labour, the Senior Midwife/Senior Charge Midwife on shift did have to come into the room on several occasions, and I only felt safe during this part of my labour when they were there as they were able to take action and advise what was required. However they were also busy in their role and had to leave to see to other things understandably.

I ended up being rushed through for emergency action due to my baby’s heartbeat dropping and not raising back up. When I was in the theatre a couple of hours later I was fully dilated so the Surgeon completed a forceps delivery. The surgeon, Andy, was amazing and he explained everything to myself and my partner as we did not know what was happening. He came through to see us after the birth to also provide a debrief which was very appreciated by us both.

I do have complications post birth following my forceps delivery, including nerve damage. Thanks to my community midwife I am receiving support from a pelvic physiotherapist who is incredible at her job. I can’t help but feel that this could have been avoided if I had better support during my time following my waters being broken. As I was not checked once to see how dilated I was once following this, if this had been monitored I can’t help but think that things could have been different and not ended in an emergency situation. Although I would like to pass on my thank you to all of the staff in the theatre who helped to deliver our baby boy safely. Including Andy who was the surgeon. I know my partner is extremely grateful for you as in that moment you put any of his nerves at ease with how you took control of the situation and explained what you were doing and why. 

Ending on a positive, the aftercare from the midwives on the observation unit and the ward were incredible. I was quite poorly afterwards and took a couple of funny turns. There was one midwife on the ward who completely made my experience. Lisa’s aftercare was incredible, she was so kind and how she cared for both myself and my baby was exemplary.  She is an absolute asset to the team and I just want to express how lucky I feel that myself and my baby were able to be cared for by her. Lisa was dealing with an extremely busy ward but she remained positive with a smile on her face, provided the highest level of care and ensured I had all of the required pain relief which was very much needed in that moment of time.