"Delivery staff amazing. Katherine Ward terrible..."

We had our baby in the early hours of 7th December . We are so grateful to the staff on the delivery staff when we were admitted after being triaged. The midwife who noticed our baby had a problem with her heartbeat, the anaesthetist who gave our epidural, and the amazing team who got my wife into theatres very quickly for an assisted delivery. Words cannot describe what a great team they are and how well they looked after us. Brilliant compassion and expertise. We had to stay nearly two days on Katharine Ward, I work in the NHS and feel very let down but the experience of the ward, in particular the midwife we had on the 7th Dec,energy morning who was in charge. the midwife was rude to us and a number of new mums, disgusting. "You're not going home until you have fed the baby" , "you need to do better than that" - when looking at my wife's urine bowl. I don't know the midwife's name as they never introduced them-self.

The midwife forced the baby onto my wife's breast like a rag doll to try and encourage breast feeding but just upset my wife and baby, the nursery nurse took time to help with this. The midwife never gave us any update or told us what the plan was,

I had also requested one of the private rooms which cost 200 pounds a night ,as really wanted to stay in our own room after a traumatic birth. We were taken there after leaving recovery and were happy in this quiet space . We were told we had to move by the midwife in charge after twenty minutes as the rooms were needed for Other patients due to a bed crisis somewhere,else. I checked these rooms again later than day and the day after and they were all empty m no one had used them. The temperature on the Katharine Ward is unbearable and not safe for new babies , parents , or visitors. I measured it as 28c, a number of complaints about this can be seen in the Past and is not fixed. Is too high for babies ( temperatures of less than 24 are recommended for babies) 'pane just makes mums who often need fluid dhydrared and incubates germs and bugs, and creates a smelly unpleasant atmosphere. Know where for dads to shower so you feel awful, visitors walking round in shorts and t shirts on a maternity ward in December. A number of different midwives looked after us and were brilliant , just really the first one, I don't think they are competent or caring. They don't keep good medical records of seek to handover between shifts , the nurse who discharged us told us " I'm not sure I can discharge you as they haven't update your records and didn't tell me at handover about your wife" . Amazing midwife who took our baby away for a feed when my wife was struggling. Thank you. The delivery staff - I am humbled by and so grateful for . Just let down by Katherine Ward - particularly one midwife who I really feel shouldn't be working in the NHS. would complain but just get generic 'we have listened' might got to CQC to express concerns raised here. Also didn't do my wife's blood test ,