"Good care for wife during childbirth, but some issues"

My wife and I laboured at the Victoria hospital in Kirkcaldy. For the most part, the level of care given was incredible, especially after birth. The nursery nurses in particular plus most of the midwives on the maternity observation unit were great! 

However there were some areas where I felt we were let down. First, when we arrived at the hospital, while we were put to a room straight away, it took an hour and a half for the midwives to check whether my wife was in established labour or not. It was a relief to find out she was and she then was started on gas and air. Why it took this long was unknown and frustrating to me.

Also, she found a birthing ball at home very comforting. When in the birthing suite, the ball she sat on was squishy, and her hips went lower than her knees, immediately causing contractions to become more intense and painful. The midwife said that the ball should be squishy, however upon reading NHS start for life https://www.nhs.uk/start-for-life/pregnancy/preparing-for-labour-and-birth/how-to-use-a-birthing-ball/), this indicates that knees should be lower than her hips. So this deflated birthing ball may be worse for labour. It was in my experience.

Further through labour, one of the midwives was asked to come in to do a vaginal exam to double check something. This midwife caused my wife to experience the worst pain she had shown so far, so much so I was close to telling the midwife to stop! I was so shocked and upset.

In maternity observations, one of the midwives made me feel very small, by saying we were not feeding our baby. Well, we were struggling to latch as our baby had a tongue tie. And the midwife made me felt like I was failing as a dad.

Additionally, my wife was given an iron infusion which was very painful for her. Even though we mentioned this to the same midwife, she just let it go. Thank goodness it only lasted for 15 minutes.