"Royton and Shaw Community Midwives"

I can not commend the Royton and Shaw community midwives enough for the advice, support and time they have given to me throughout both of my pregnancies in the last couple of years.

Anne was the first midwife I met in pregnancy 1. As soon as I walked into the room there was an air of calmness and i instantly felt relaxed, she made time to answer all my questions and as a first time mum I couldn't have been more grateful. I continued to see Anne and every time I saw her she continued to make me feel like she hadn't done this a million times over with other ladies.

Anne spoke to me about all the different options that I would face along the way of pregnancy 1, one of these being hypnobirthing, something i'd read about and wanted to do. I was amazed when they were offering a 4 week course for £50 as all the private courses are 7x more expensive.

On the hypnobirthing course I met Kim "the midwife." Kim is the most calming person to be around, she listens and i could tell from the time she gave to me alone, she is extremely passionate about what she does and clearly wants the best for the ladies she looks after.

Strong advocates of home birthing, they respected that it wasn't for me and I felt fully informed of other options available... the birth centre was a happy half way point.

However, I ended up giving birth via induction at Oldham Royal, the midwife on shift with me that day (I think was called Lisa) respected the fact I wanted to hypnobirth my way through this, she turned the lights off to try and create the right environment for me and I was extremely grateful for this.

My daughter was born at lunchtime and while I was having skin on skin, Kim had just started her shift so she popped by to say hello and congratulations!! It was so lovely to see her and introduce her to our gorgeous little girl that she'd help me prepare for.

Kim continued to look after my daughter and I once we'd been discharged, she helped me with breastfeeding advice and putting me in contact with aftercare. I couldn't have asked for more and it was actually really sad to say goodbye and be discharged from their care as they're all just amazing women!

9 months later and slightly unplanned I found myself pregnant again. This time round I met the lovely Jen, continuing the theme of being amazing, listening and genuinely caring about me and my pregnancy, I couldn't have asked for better care. It was a pleasure to go to my appointments and see her and occasionally I saw Kim too which was lovely. With this pregnancy I ended up, unexpectedly giving birth at home. I knew Jen and Kim would be proud once they heard :)

It was so lovely to see them the next day and introduce them to our gorgeous little boy. Again, the aftercare I received was second to none, something I'm eternally grateful for.

I've babbled on here, but i felt I needed to let you know what an amazing community midwife team you have at Royton and Shaw. Chatting to other new mums and their midwife experience I feel extremely fortunate to have had this team look after me and my children and as I said at the beginning I can't commend them enough.