"Nightmare!!!!"

Whilst we are sorry that yours was a bad experience, it does date back over a year now. And while not all mothers may be completely happy with the care that they and their babies may receive, we also know that a very large number of women take a different view. How do we know this? Because they write and tell us so.

Even in the last 14 months much has changed - and will continue to change - as we move towards creating our new Trust-wide maternity service at the Lister hospital in Stevenage, which is on track to be ready from the end of this year. This will see, for the first time in Hertfordshire, a midwife-led maternity unit working alongside a consultant-led unit.

Our aim is to create one of the finest maternity services available anywhere in the country, which supports ante and post natal care still taking place close to where people live. This includes ensuring that all women, whether or not they choose to give birth in hospital, have access to far greater choice over how and where they have their baby. Indeed our new service will be ideally placed to support women, who like you, experience birthing complications.

We are really sorry about your experience at the QEII back in November 2009, but hope that you and your child are now doing well.