"Stressful labour and delivery, helped by midwives"

I went in for induction with my little baby on the Friday morning and had the pessary. It was 24 hours before anything actually started to happen but my contractions were just so strong from the get go I really couldn't cope.

I spoke to a midwife who asked me if I would like an epidural and cried because I had already said I didn't want one. She gave me some co-codamol and I tried all my pain relief options before settling on the epidural. My midwife was so encouraging and told me how well I was doing and that I was doing the right thing to keep me and baby calm now. She stayed with me until her shift ended and wished me luck. I then had another midwife who was really encouraging and kept me regularly updated on how I was doing.

When I was finally ready to push it took me 3 hours to get my boy out and they wanted to take me to surgery but luckily I managed to do it with an episiotomy.

I had a post-partum haemorrhage and was in quite a bad way afterwards so was very anxious when I got onto ward 21 as I still couldn't get out of bed so was worried about being left alone with my baby.

The midwife in charge on the ward that night came to visit me regularly and was just a buzz away to help me out with him. At one point she took him with her to settle him so I could try to get a little bit of sleep.

I have to admit that some of the doctors on the labour ward were a little rude and condescending but I felt that all the midwives and students who took care of me were not receiving enough credit for their hard work. I admired them so much to the point they've actually inspired me to go into midwifery myself.