"Giving birth at Nevill Hall"

I was admitted to Nevill Hall the evening before I was due to be induced (they agreed to induce me at 41 weeks, which is reasonable in my view) and was placed on the post natal ward because the ante-natal was full. I wasn't really bothered about this, at least I had a bed! It's a very busy maternity ward.

My waters broke at about 2am, so there was no need to be induced. I thought the evening midwives were a little slow to get to me, I went to tell them my waters had broken and that my contractions had become frequent, they came to me half an hour later. I went for a check with a midwife who was quite firm, but did her job well. I stayed on the post natal ward for 3 hours and was moved to the labour ward at about 5/5.30 am. I was given gas and air as soon as I asked for it and they also offered and administered me with pethidine. I had wanted a water birth, but there were no water birth midwives available so I couldn't have one. The midwives checked me at about 6.30am and said I was still only 2cm and that I had a while to go yet. At about 7am I went to the loo and as a first time mum thought I needed to pass a stool, when I was actually feeling the urge to bear down! I had dilated 8cm within half an hour, which is rare and unpredictable. I screamed because I was panicking and 2 lovely midwives came and practically carried me to the labour suite. My delivery midwife was lovely, she ran me a bath when my birth partner got there so that I could use the water as pain relief and encouraged me to walk about and adopt different positions. When I did decide on lying down she didn't push me to stand, she recognised that I was in too much pain to try different positions (back pain labour due to a tilted uterus). My pushing stage lasted longer than expected (3 hours) and the midwife contacted an OB towards the end of my 2nd hour to let them know my babies heart rate was fluctuating rapidly. My birth partner was aware that it was a potentially precarious situation, but I wasn't, their discretion was great. The OB came down after a short while with a ventouse and told me she would give me a shot at a vaginal delivery with a ventouse and if that failed she would take me in for a c-section. She was very reassuring. She asked my permission to perform an epsiotomy and to deliver using the ventouse method, when I gave consent she called in the paediatricians who were there immediately. My daughter was out with the ventouse rapidly, checked, cleaned and in my arms in record time.

I was transferred to the post-natal ward about an hour later, it was very clean and quiet. The midwives were great and very helpful in establishing breastfeeding. They agreed to discharge me the next day and showed me how to bathe and wash my little one. The discharge took a long time, but I needed to wait to see the OB and a paediatrician first.

Overall I was very happy with my experience there.