"Giving birth to my first little baby during lockdown"

Obviously during the pandemic everything changed. Causeway maternity unit closed and so midwifery staff from Causeway hospital were working alongside midwifery staff in Antrim Area hospital. The two sets of midwifery staff I saw seemed to have differing opinions on how things should be done and I felt tension between the two sets. As a first time mother who had to stay in hospital for a few days after the birth of her baby, it was uncomfortable to:

1)see the two sets of midwives interact with each other

2)Listen to them make bitchy comments about each other behind backs, but in earshot of us as new mothers

3)Listen to them scrutinise the way another midwife carried out a task.

This was not just midwives on the wards, the issues seemed to carry up through the levels, as I saw some senior staff also caught up in this playground mentality! Amalgamating two hospital maternity units is bound to have been difficult, but from what I witnessed not one midwife rose above it. New mothers and babies are the priority!