"I had my son (second child) in ..."

What I liked

I had my son (second child) in May 09 as a second section. The staff once again on the delivery suite and theatre were lovely and I was given personalised care. We were involved in the decisions from the start and we felt 100% safe.

What could be improved

Once I was transfered onto maternity (M5) things once again changed drastically. If it wasn't for the student midwives and health care assistants I would have discharged myself. The midwives had a very poor attitude and I was treated as an inconvience. This is my second and last visit to maternity at the Royal Bolton. I had trouble breastfeeding my son and I was given inconsistent advice. The only person on the ward who had a sound knowledge base was a health care assistant and obviously they had limited control to impact policy making so when they wern't on duty I was left with midwives who couldn't be bothered. I was concerned about my son and requested that his blood sugars were monitored and when they were he was hypo. I was then told by the midwife that if 'I didn't feed him with a bottle he would end up in neonatal'!! Some of the midwives on that ward need to reflect upon whether they are still in the right job and to remember or gain knowledge of what it is like to give birth. I decided to go home a day early where I was safe in the knowledge of having 100% backup from the community midwives who are far more knowledgeable and treated me like a person rather than an inconvience.

Anything else?

All staff on the M wards should be breastfed trained.

I fed back my experiences to the Director of Midwifery 4 years ago when I had my daughter and I did not receive any feedback or acknowledgement so I am dubious as to whether it is worth making these comments a second time around but he/she needs to to liase with the matrons on these wards and action taken because in my opinion nothing has changed in the past 4 years.