"The post natal ward was nice and the midwifes were lovely"

I went in to oldham hosipal as my waters had broke. Upon arrival the midwife who greeted me was lovely and took me through to a private room in the birthing centre, she explained to me that she would be in to check me over soon as she just had to go and see another lady.

She said if I was in any pain then I could use anything in the room and to try to relax. When she came back she checked me over and noticed that my water was an off colour and told me I would have to go up to triage to be looked at, also explaining that if what she believes is true (that my baby had been to the toilet in my waters) that I would need to be kept in on the labour ward as I would now be classed as high risk.

I went to triage and they confirmed what the other midwife on the birthing centre had thought and put me on a monitor for half an hour. Everything was fine with my babies heat rate and I was having very small contractions so I came off the monitor and put in a bay on the triage as I waited for a bed on the labour ward.

They offered me some pain killers and a drink I was then left to my own devices until I could be moved. It wasn't until 7: 30am that a bed came open on the labour ward. I was took down to the labour ward and got settled in to my room. The midwife who was assigned to me was lovely she asked me what pain relief I wanted and didn't want and was promised that she wouldn't push anything on to me that I didn't want. The midwife checked my dilation and believed I still had waters left so called a doctor into try break them.

The doctor cam a few times but wasn't able to pop them (that is because there wasn't any there). The doctor looked at my notes and saw what the triage had wrote so decided to put me on a drip to help speed my labour up and antibiotics as my baby had been in there with no water for so long. It was all going smoothly apart from my cervix wasnt dilating as quickly as they thought it was after 20 hours I was still 3cm.

I decided to have a epidural as I believed I was in it for the long haul. Around 30 mins after having the epidural my temperature went really high indicating a infection. They was keeping a close eye on my babies heart beat and noticed it was dropping, they took a swab from her head and sent it for testing, as soon as it came back loads of people came running in to my room all dressed in scrubs and told me they had to get my baby out within the next 15 minutes.

I got rushed off to theatre, I began to cry I felt so scared and a bit of a failure. The aneasatist spoke calmy to me telling me everything will be ok she stayed at my head talking to me until my partner got to me. The surgeons was able to get my princess out within 8 minutes I didnt get to see her as she needed oxygen and anti biotics straight away so she was rushed to nicu while I was closed up. After being closed up and cleaned I was taken to the recovery room and was checked every 15 minutes as I had an infection.

They then took me to my labour room where I was kept for 24 hours on 15 min obs. The midwife came to me and asked if I wanted my baby fed by my milk or formula. She helped me hand express for my baby and took it to her. I told her I hadn't seen her yet so she came to me with two pictures of her.

The next day I woke and the epidural had worn off all I wanted to do was have a shower and go see my baby! I asked the midwife and she told me I had to stay in bed I became distressed.

The aneasatist who did my epidural then came to see how I was and saw I was upset she asked if I was ok I explained I wanted a shower and to see my baby and she said ok then lets get you out of bed, I told her I was told I wasn't allowed so she went out of the room and when she came back in she helped me out of bed and in to the shower. I could then go and see my baby she was beautiful.

The nicu team were amazing with her while she was in there. I was kept in hospital for 8 days as my baby's infection levels wouldn't come down and she stopped taking milk. She was kept in nicu for five days. The post natal ward was nice and the midwifes were lovely while I was there. I can not thank everyone enough for what you all did during my birth if it wasn't for your quick responses my baby may not have survived and neither would I so thank you.