"It was made so much more bearable by the compassion, support and professionalism shown by the staff"

After a sweep I went into quite a slow but niggly labour - my membranes had ruptured but this was not picked up until I presented at the maternity unit 48 hours after I had been first checked over and sent home. This however, is not a complaint. Things like this happen and the fact that it was eventually detected and both my baby and myself received fantastic care is what I want to talk about.

The labour itself was fairly quick considering it was a first baby and when my little bub shot (it was a speedy active pushing session) into the world she received the optimum care from the delivery staff. She required a bit of assistance with resus and both myself and the little one were put on antibiotics to combat the infection we had acquired during the ruptured membrane incident. Bub spent her first night in the Neo-natal unit and this was heartbreaking for both myself and my husband. We had not been able to hold her and when we saw her in the unit she was in an incubator so were unable to hold her. My husband then had to go home and I was admitted to the maternity ward where I spent the first night alone - without my baby. What was nice though was that I had asked that if she required a feed that I be called. At 3am I received a phonecall and was able to go down to the unit and try and feed her.

I was still a bit in shock and recovering myself but it was just really nice to be able to hold my baby.

The following day she was able to join me on the maternity ward where we were told we would be spending the minimum of 5 days as bub was on IV antibiotics and had a canula in her wee arm. She also had to endure a number of tests including a lumber puncture. Being so small (5lb 14oz) it really tore at my heart to watch my baby have to go through all this.

The staff on the maternity ward - were ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC! On the first night on the ward she was quite poorly with mucus and the antibiotics entering her system and spent the whole night awake being sick and with an upset tummy. I was also struggling with oedema and my legs had pretty much tripled in size making it very painful and difficult to walk. The staff were extremely supportive through the night helping me feed, wind and change her.

I also commented at that time about how I wished my husband could be here and was told that this was possible as a bed could be brought into my room.

This was fantastic - my husband moved in and together we were able to spend the first week of our daughter's life together - albeit not at home like we had hoped.

The midwives and nursery staff were absolutely brilliant in terms of assisting and supporting us - Claire, one of the Nursery Nurses was particularly helpful in terms of showing us some calming skills and also how to help our baby poop (antibiotics tended to result in a feast or famine in the poop department). Claire, one of the midwives on during a couple of the nights we were in was also really helpful in terms of assisting with breast feeding and helping settle her down.

All in all, all of the staff on that ward were brilliant. Allowing my husband to stay was amazing and nothing ever seemed like a bother to them.

Obviously, this is not how we envisaged how our first week with our baby would be - but it was made so much more bearable by the compassion, support and professionalism shown by the staff on the maternity ward.