"Mixed review "

I was in the hospital from 24th August until the 2nd September for the birth of my son, I felt very looked after as I had an induction, the staff were friendly and helpful. Once I eventually went into labour I was left on the ward overnight as there were no beds on the delivery suite and I was told there was a bit of a wait, this is not any of the staffs fault and I know they were trying their best to move me as soon as possible.

Once I was moved the midwife that was there for the birth was absolutely fantastic and will forever appreciate how lovely she was.

After my son was born we had around 5 hours in the delivery suite, and then I was to be moved downstairs into the ward, this is the first time I tried to move and realised that I couldn’t because of a pain in my pelvis. The midwife was helpful and got me dressed and managed to find a wheelchair to get me downstairs.

Once I was on the ward this is where I started to feel let down, I know the staff are busy but I felt like I wasn’t listened to about the pain. I originally had a caffiter fitted but then a few hours later this was removed, I asked the midwife if there was a wheelchair or crutches I could use to get around and she just said no and I would need to walk to the toilet (I literally couldn’t move, i couldn’t get in or out of bed by myself or lift my feet off the floor once I was standing, and she knew that)

A few hours later someone else came to my bed with a team of paediatricians, she didn’t tell me who she was but I’m assuming a midwife, she very quickly told me that they needed to do some tests on my baby and they could do it right now, she didn’t tell me what they were doing and was very rushed. She then asked when the last time the baby ate was and it turned out it was about 8 hours ago, I was understandably so tired from the last few days that I had just not thought about feeding him and nobody had said anything and baby wasn’t crying or anything. She got really annoyed that it had been so long and took one of the bottles of formula from the side and asked me for a bottle, I wanted to breastfeed but she said there wasn’t time and went on to feed him a bottle of formula. I found this really upsetting and was clearly emotional and wish I had said something but at the time didn’t because I wanted to do what was right for him, they then took him off for tests for 5 hours! I was moved to transitional care where nobody could tell me how long it would be until they brought him back. After 5 hours he was returned and I stayed on transitional care for 4 days where the staff were brilliant and looked after me and baby very well.

It’s been 5 weeks and the thought of the time on the ward still makes me emotional, I know the staff are so busy but I want them to just take a bit of time to explain things and ask the mums opinion on things because as a new mum I was so emotional and exhausted that I really didn’t need someone treating me like an idiot.

Sorry for the long review!!