"birth of my son"

The service was really very good. Everyone walked away healthy and happy BUT, the human element was sometimes a bit lacking. For instance, we had a well thought through birth plan that asked for a water birth, but the midwife was a bit flippant. She was probably right that my wife's labour was too far gone, but her manner was quite rude. Then, later when we were about 30 mins from the birth, the midwife was checking Whitney Houston lyrics on the internet and asking me for help with computer! At 4am that was quite surreal. Again - she was probably experienced enough to be relaxed that the labour was going very well, but her manner was so in contrast to our own as to appear rude. Don't get me wrong, she executed her job well, but the quality of that execution, in terms of how it made us feel, was lacking.

I feel sorry for the NHS, as the customer benchmark for services is now so high. Twenty years ago all shopkeepers were like our midwife, but now the custome comes first and is treated like royalty. The NHS hasn't kept up with that cultural shift. The good news is that the human element doesn't cost anything...