"Positive experience"

It’s taken me a bit of time to write this, but I wanted to share the positive experience I had with the birth of my daughter in April 2025 despite being induced and then haemorrhaging after birth.

We finally fell pregnant with our beautiful daughter after our second round of IVF after many years of infertility, so my emotions were already heightened from the start. Our wonderful community midwife Jillian was exceptional. She was extremely patient with me and was great with all the questions I had. 

As there were some complications towards the end of my pregnancy I was induced at 39 weeks and had the balloon fitted as an inpatient. I arrived on the Monday evening and was taken to the labour ward on the Wednesday evening. The consultant who fitted my balloon was fantastic - talked through the whole process and made me feel at ease. The labour ward was very busy so although I was ready to go there on the Tues night I had to stay an extra 24 hours. The staff in antenatal were fantastic, especially Amanda who looked after me (and my husband when he was in), and also Aisling who has the patient of a saint!! 

For the first half of my labour our midwife was Tasha who is an absolute credit to Wishaw. We felt lucky to have an award winning midwife as part of our birth. She is incredibly kind and caring. Tasha made sure I was calm and was great at explaining everything when I needed some pain relief. She came to visit us after our daughter had been born during her tea break on her next shift and we were so incredibly grateful to see her again. 

For the second half of my labour we had Francesca who was also incredible - we will never forget her. I nearly had to have an intervention towards the end of my birth, however Francesca and consultant Sara were incredible at motivating me to deliver my baby safely without this. When my baby arrived she had to be taken to NICU for a short period of time. I was incredibly anxious and worried having waited this long to finally meet our baby and I wasn’t able to hold her, but Francesca really looked after me and talked to me to calm me down.

Shortly after I had a haemorrhage and lost a lot of blood - again Francesca was quick to get the team in and stayed with me whilst everything was going on. The team of consultants and nurses were incredible. It was pretty scary and I didn’t really know what was going on, however the team kept my husband very informed and also calm (having just had his daughter taken to NICU and his wife had severe blood loss) as he was pretty shaken. A massive thank you again to consultant Sara who explained each step to me and visited me until I was discharged to post natal to ask if I had any questions on what was happening and to see how I was feeling.

Once I was stable my husband was then able to visit our daughter in NICU and I honestly can’t thank the team enough there - they helped him change and feed my daughter and she was able to be discharged after five hours there. 

All the staff in the post natal ward were incredible. Very thorough in all of their checks for me and my daughter. We had an extremely positive experience at Wishaw despite everything that happened and I honestly can’t thank the midwives and consultants enough for the care they gave us. I feel incredibly lucky to have had our daughter in Wishaw.