"Put off of another birth at the Rosie"

My son was born at the Rosie almost four months ago via an emergency c-section for which I was completely unprepared and still feel traumatized.

I began the evening in the birth centre and progressed rapidly to the operating theatre.

My pregnancy had been low risk, and although I did not appreciate the fact that I never saw the same midwife twice during my prenatal care, I was more or less satisfied with the midwife team to which I had been assigned. During labour I felt as though things spiraled quite quickly and did not feel as supported as I would have liked by the attending midwives in order to stick with the natural birth that I had hoped for.

I would have happily tried different positions, or eating and drinking more, anything to avoid a c-section.

And although I was doing, according to the attending midwife and the student midwife, "so well", it was a complete shock when things went south. I have flashbacks still. My stay in the hospital was in Lady Mary ward, and after my own time there I have heard many other mums state how disappointed they were with the services they received. It was a very uncomfortable stay and the staffing levels over nights were extremely low, considering the high number of mothers and babies needing assistance through the night when partners are not allowed. The environment was far too hot (I was beside the window) and the lights in the room uncomfortably bright.

I will not mention them here, but there were several instances when I was not informed about important aspects of my clinical care.

I was also not aware of why I had to stay admitted for so long.

The only bright spot of those traumatic days in the hospital was the assistance of one midwife who was particularly helpful and empathetic despite being stretched thin, and the lactation consultant on hand the second night of my stay who spotted my son's posterior tongue tie and put in the referral for the Bedford hospital.

It would have been far easier and simpler to have his tongue tie divided there and then at Addenbrookes as his feeding was 100% affected by his slight tongue tie.

I am trying for a VBAC during my next pregnancy and have major trepidation about having another child at the Rosie.