"Birth experience"

I recently gave birth to my second child in the Ulster Hospital and my experience in the labour ward was really positive. My midwife was Adele and I thought she was incredible. On arrival, she put me at ease immediately. Her advice was really helpful, whilst allowing me to make my own decisions. Towards the end of my labour, my baby was unwell. Adele acted quickly and assertively, whilst giving me clear directions and reassuring me. She was exactly the kind of person you need in a crisis. The obstetrician who was called to help was Dr Neeson. He attended immediately, acted quickly and was calm throughout it all. My baby was delivered happy and healthy, and I am very grateful to an amazing team for making that happen. My anaesthetists were Dr Maguire and Dr Vincent, both of whom were fantastic. I got an excellent epidural and I am thankful for their expertise.

During my antenatal care, they wanted to monitor me closely. Unfortunately in the Ulster, the CTG part of this monitoring is done in the Emergency Obstetric Unit. When I went for my monitoring, I was, understandably, bottom of the priority list to be seen. This meant that my average visit to get an ultrasound scan and a CTG was around six hours long, and I often did this twice a week. I understand a system under pressure, and I am okay with waiting, but I think it is inappropriate to have scheduled monitoring appointments in an emergency unit.

This was my second child. Both of children have had a tongue tie, which has made breast feeding very painful. The system for referral to get a tongue tie corrected involves getting home from hospital and being seen by a community midwife before you can be referred to have the tongue tie corrected privately, at a personal cost. I was told that midwives in the hospital cannot make the referral. Breast feeding is often quoted as 8-12 feeds in 24 hours. Feeds may last half an hour, or a longer in a baby with a tongue tie and an inefficient latch. This adds up to many hours of pain. With both children, there was a massive relief of the pain of feeding after the tongue tie was cut.

Both of my children were small babies and having a tongue tie often leads to a poor latch and inefficient feeding. This can have the effect of poor growth and affect milk supply.

There is a lot of health promotion stating the beneficial effects of breast feeding. For all the promotion, there is one thing that I think would make a massive difference to the decision to continue with breast feeding, and that is timely correction of a tongue tie. Unfortunately, in the South Eastern trust, this is not available.

I do not want to take away from the excellent care I received on the labour ward, but I believe that these are important issues that would make a big difference to future mums and their babies!