"I am in awe of the midwifery team! Amazing."

From the first appointments with my community midwife who was amazing, through to giving birth at the Whittington, I have had an incredibly positive, supported experience. It was our second child at The Whittington, and I felt well cared for with both. My first birth was fairly medicalised though I was supported in avoiding a c section and having a vaginal delivery. And we have just had our son on the labour ward, I had hoped for a more natural birth this time round and was lucky enough to have one. He was identified early as being small for gestational age, so I was induced at 38 weeks which I had felt very nervous about. As I was high risk I was induced on the labour ward and the midwives were very reassuring about the process of induction, and great about being as unobtrusive as possible with the monitoring. Luckily the first stage of induction, the propess worked on me, and from that I had a straight forward labour.

I also ended up having a midwife led, natural birth on the labour ward (I had originally wanted a homebirth, and feel I got very close to that experience despite being in hospital). It was a pain relief free and spontaneous delivery, with a natural third stage as well, which was made possible by how supportive and amazing our midwife was, both in terms of her medical experience and expertise, and the fact she gave me lots of emotional support. The hospital and labour ward was incredibly full over the two days that we were there, and though they were stretched the standard of care was always fantastic, and there was also some continuity of care as the midwife who delivered our son was the same one I'd seen the day before who did the propess. I felt well cared for at every stage and am in awe of the midwifery team who are doing such brilliant work whilst having to cope with a lot of pressure and a high number of mothers. I feel incredibly lucky to have the NHS, and want to pass on a big thanks for the safe and happy delivery of our child!