"My birth story"

2 years ago I had my daughter in the community midwife led unit which was a fantastic experience. I felt completely in control and listened to in the time when I was most vulnerable, giving birth for the first time. I was able to use the birthing pool and the midwives set up an environment where I was able to relax as much as possible.

I have just had my second baby at RAH, albeit during a pandemic. I arrived at 10pm. I cannot fault the midwives as they were great once again however I was supposed to be community midwife led again and was told during full blown labour that they were very busy and so had closed the cmu.

Additionally to that my husband was not allowed past the front doors of the hospitals leaving me (a couple of hours from birth) to have to navigate up to cmu breathing through my contractions myself , to be turned away saying they're closed. I then had to get on the lift again myself to be told to go to triage and sit in a waiting area to be seen. Meanwhile I was using my breathing techniques that I had been taught and pacing as much as I could. I had to eventually ring the bell to be assessed as I knew birth was imminent.

I was eventually taken to an assessment room where my husband was able to join me about 10.40pm. We were transferred to a labour suite when one became available about 11.20pm. I was not able to have the birthing pool I had wanted but they did try and keep it as 'green pathway' as possible by using the heartbeat doppler as opposed to the belly monitor. My second daughter was born a half hour later. 

It was definitely not the training experience it should have been however midwives did their best with the resources they had to make it as comfortable as possible.

I cannot stress how important having the cmu open is. It is so important to allow women a choice on how they want to birth if it is medically possible.