"Good hospital, some brilliant staff,..."

What I liked

I had two fantastic midwives in the delivery suite, one was a student who was just brilliant. I got an epidural when needed.

The food gets slagged off a lot, but I found the catering staff to be really friendly and the food not that bad.

What could be improved

I think some of the staff - particularly consultants - live in a little bubble up there and think they know what's best without really listening to how a woman feels. I would go as far as to say one was rather bullying.

Whilst the delivery suite was great, the ward afterwards was not good. I found things written in my notes that were not actually ever said or done.

Dreadful attempt at breaking waters by one midwife. For midwives who have never experienced this personally, a little sympathy would be nice because this was worse than the birth part.

I was also given some hogwash that if I dared give any formula milk to the baby I would never be able to breastfeed afterwards.

I felt, as this was my second birth there, that I wanted to get out as soon as possible as the longer you stay in, the harder it seems to get out.

Anything else?

It's the second baby I have had at this hospital - one emergency section, one VBAC with forceps. Some staff aren't great, others are brilliant, but in context, generally it's a fairly clean, organised hospital that does a really good job.

I think baby magazines make first time mums think they are staying in some kind of hotel and give them unrealistic expectations.