"Elective C-Section"

A huge thank you to every single midwife, HCSW, sonographer, receptionist, consultant, anaesthetist, theatre assistant, nurse and every other staff member involved in maternity services at Wishaw general. From phone calls to maternity triage, visits for reduced movement, scans and additional testing every single member of staff is worth their weight in gold.

I had an elective c-section mid September and truly cannot fault the care I was given at any point. I was reassured at every step and looked after exceptionally well, special thanks to midwife Kirsty and student midwife Jess who made sure the whole thing was a positive experience. I feel so lucky to have had a positive birth experience as I know so many people don’t. All of the theatre staff were incredible, thank you for bringing my daughter safely into the world and looking after me in the process. So much care and attention was taken to reassure me and make the whole thing a positive experience, small things like taking photos and having my own playlist on made such a huge difference and I’ll be forever grateful to the entire team of staff for creating that experience for me.

My only points for improvement are not related to staff. The postnatal ward is extremely warm, to an unbearable level and I really feel this impacted my recovery especially with being limited in movement and having to stay for 24 hours due to c-section. I believe there has to be an assessment of the built environment to determine what is a safe number of people to have in the ward at each time to keep it at a safe temperature as I don’t believe it should just be accepted it’s boiling and that’s that, it was impossible to sleep which severely impacted my recovery and I was very unwell by the time I was discharged and got home.

Secondly, I believe there is a real issue with allowing partners to stay overnight on a postnatal ward. I had a person looking at me through my curtain whilst trying to breastfeed my daughter, and another who sat watching me taking my first walk to the toilet which again is a very vulnerable moment after birth. It was loud the entire night which meant I didn’t sleep, and whilst I can understand a desire to have your partner present after birth I don’t believe it is safe nor dignified for the women present in the ward. The midwives discouraged my husband from staying overnight which I agree with and now understand why they did so, but I believe either alternative sleeping arrangements should be made for partners so it isn’t disruptive for mothers in recovery, or the option should be removed altogether.