"Labour and delivery team"

We came into NDDH recently to be induced, the triage team were really reassuring and helpful, the staff member was very lovely.

We were then handed over to the delivery team, who were absolutely amazing start to finish - reassuring, kind, considerate of my partner and my labour which was very different to my birth plan. We couldn’t have asked for kinder more amazing people to help us navigate something so hard.

Once baby arrived we got to spend some time in our suite together and then were moved upstairs to Bassett - my midwife then changed to someone different, who introduced herself after a while and needed to take bloods for sodium levels after the oxytocin. I did ask why this needed to be done again as it had been done downstairs. She went and found out and came back to explain why, I consented and that was fine.

My only concern I had about this specific midwife was that I wasn’t asked at all how I was feeling, she didn’t ask if I needed painkillers. I asked for ibuprofen as my placenta delivery was quite hands on and I felt very tender on my tummy and asked for something to settle my tummy as I had a lot of wind pain - she said that she couldn’t give me anything for this and it was normal. Shortly after she went on a break and her cover for the break came in, introduced herself to me, my partner and baby, asked if I needed any pain relief. I explained I asked for paracetamol and asked about my wind pain again - she then went and sorted some pain relief and peppermint water which actually helped a lot! She also took out my catheter and explained about having a wee, talked me through the discomfort I might feel during and was amazing. I did have a long labour, epidural and epicitomy.

We then buzzed for the first midwife again to ask when our baby should’ve fed again as it had been a while but she was happily asleep. It had been about 4.5/5 hours since her last feed and we were then told baby should feed every 3 hours and that we needed to feed her. We asked for help and she did help us massively with latching and baby fed which was really helpful. But I didn’t feel any warmth from her for the 3 of us for some reason. It’s also only a small thing, but she kept calling baby “He/Him” when she is a female so that made me feel like she hadn’t read our notes, nor did she ask if she had a name etc which obviously just makes the care feel that bit more personal. I called her to say I’d done my first wee, it was left for a while - understand everyone was busy but when she came back she basically bluntly said the wee was not good enough and I needed to do it again later. My partner was helping and getting ready to go home and leave us and also felt a bit anxious leaving me as he also felt the same as above with the midwife.

Shift changed and we had someone different overnight, which instantly relaxed myself and my partner as he straight away felt happier leaving us as she came straight in, introduced herself to us all, was amazing in helping us try to feed, explained and ask my partner if he could go home and get some of our collected colostrum and was just absolutely kind and amazing when I had been feeling very anxious and a bit blind all day. Overnight she was amazing, made sure I did my two wees and was happy. She helped me with any worries and made sure I rested. She was absolutely amazing after such a worry with me and baby care after a long and hard labour it had felt like such a shock to the system coming upstairs and not being asked even if my pad needed changing or if I could walk after my epidural. I’ll never forget the care this midwife gave to us and the  attention she paid to what we all needed at such a vulnerable and new navigating as new parents.

I just wanted to raise awareness to the team as I did feel if I didn’t have a great supportive partner I would’ve really been struggling trying to manage and navigate what I should be doing and feeling, and some women don’t have this and I would feel awful for someone to feel how I did but not have the support from a partner to help.