"My amazing midwife!"

I will be writing a longer more descriptive letter of thanks and appreciation but I had my baby girl late at night by C-section. Long story short, my birth ended up being the worst nightmare I had worried about the way through. This was no fault of the hospital, but I had been labelled due to previous mental health issues and current social issues as an anxious patient. I had a midwife during the day who was very professional but had not been able to calm me. I was shaking with fear and anxiety and had to make a quick decision on surgery.

As this happened, my midwife, Chanelle (or Chanel) came on duty. She was amazing! I was petrified of caesarean. I felt like I was panicking so much I was almost not even in the room. She was calming, positive, friendly. She could not have done more. I can't thank her enough. She was just there and I needed her more than I imagined I would need someone more than my partner at that time. She listened when I said I wanted to know the minimum of what was happening in surgery and must have relayed this so well to the staff because they were amazing too. I consented to everything but she just answered for me because I couldn't speak. I didn't appreciate it at the time, but I keep thinking back to hearing her relay my wishes. She was so happy and smiling and she stayed with me the entire time just so I had a face to recognise and I didn't feel worse.

She brought the baby straight over. Conversed with my partner and I but didn't interfere. She helped my baby girl latch on in theatre and answered all my little panics. She came back to say goodbye before she left on shift but because I was still shaky and scared I didn't have time to thank her properly. Please pass on my thanks to her. She is a wonderful person and a great professional. She is definitely in the right career. I will write to PALS but if there is anyone I can write to to nominate her for an award of anything I would love to do that.