"Overall very postive"

What I liked

I had my first baby at Queen Charlotte's in November. The obstetricians and midwives were brilliant throughout and I still feel incredibly grateful to them all for safely delivering my baby girl.

The standard of care during the birth was excellent and the paediatricians were especially brilliant when my baby developed jaundice in her first week.

What could be improved

I ended up having my baby in the consultant led unit but had originally hoped to use a birthing pool in the birth centre. I'd heard rumours early on in my pregnancy that the birthing centre was often short staffed and had refused entry to women in labour. When I did my checking in appointment though I was reassured that this was incredibly rare. However twice in the week I went into labour there was only one midwife on duty and I was told that I wouldn't be able to use the birth centre because of lack of staff. This lack of midwives needs to be openly acknowledged by the hospital.

The post natal ward was awful. Noisy, chaotic and crowded. I had been in labour for 4 days but was woken after just 3 hours sleep for a pointless check by one of the nurses and then again an hour later and an hour after that. I wasn't disturbed once by the other babies on the ward but instead by the complete inconsideration of the staff on the ward throughout the night.