"Transitional care unit"

I wanted to express our gratitude for the excellent care in the Victoria hospital transitional care unit over the last few days.

Our day old baby was admitted with a respiratory infection following a straightforward home birth we couldn't have asked for a better hospital experience. 

The fact that we were able to receive expert NICU medical care from the team whilst "rooming in" as a family and being encouraged to provide our own normalised baby care has been key to our positive experience as a family and him keeping so well given his initially high infection markers. The was remarked on by several members of staff.

Being encouraged to provide skin to skin, acknowledging my preference for safe co-sleeping and discussing UNICEF safe sleep guidelines and having access to him 24/7 to establish breastfeeding has shown itself to be hugely important in the maintenance of his health, his recovery and his success with feeding. It was amazing to watch how his observations would immediately improve when being done skin to skin (when compared to the cot) and the less than 2% weight loss. I loved the enthusiasm of the staff in considering what was right for the baby as an individual and the family unit and the fact that if I asked a question or challenged something it was considered carefully, discussed and followed up.

I know this unit is a fairly new best start initiative and so I just wanted to make sure that the team know how valuable this is to families. 

The staff, from medical to support staff, were very supportive and on discharge we had a call from the community breastfeeding support team to ensure we knew how to access support if required. 

Our most sincere thanks,

The whole Family 

XXX