"Words cannot thank her enough"

I was under the care of the midwife team at Arbroath, in particular under the care of Joanne, and my experience was fantastic.

Arbroath midwife unit is a great community hospital that made attending appointments and ante-natal classes far easier than travelling through to Ninewells. It was even better that they did a day clinic in Carnoustie so I didn’t even need to travel for some of my appointments.

Jo was my assigned midwife and she is a woman designed for the job she does. Jo was compassionate, caring and made me feel completely at ease.

This was my first pregnancy and I had no idea what to expect with the process but Jo guided, and reassured me, throughout the journey. She was approachable and informative.

At the appointment discussing my birth plan she took the time to explain all options to me in detail to allow me to make an informed choice. The team were really prompt to deal with any queries I had and I found them quick to action anything that needed further checks for example a query on whether I had gestational diabetes and arranging a further scan for our baby due to his father being born with a birth defect.

I loved the fact I had one assigned midwife throughout the process as it allowed you to form a relationship with the midwife and build the trust.

We had the baby and had two follow up appointments with Nicola who is also based at Arbroath and found her to be lovely and reassuring to deal with as well.

Due to her days off it was a couple of days after birth until I saw Jo again.

At the time I was struggling a little bit with processing my birth experience. Jo was incredibly supportive and discussed things through with me and was able to point me in the direction of available resources. Whilst I had planned to tell her how I was feeling, because of the continuity of care and having dealt with Jo for the previous 9 months, she picked up instantly that I wasn’t myself and it was maybe more than the baby blues.

Any mother to be who is assigned Jo as their midwife is incredibly lucky. To me Jo is a woman I will never forget. Her care and compassion will stay with me forever.

Words cannot thank her enough for her positive impact on my first pregnancy.