"I had not had the chance to prepare myself."

After giving birth to my first child I was experiencing breathing difficulties and was sent to Kings Mill Hospital for a lung scan to rule out the possibility of a clot on the lung.

There was a delay in having this scan and in the mean time had to make the journey into hospital every evening for a blood thinning injection. As I was breastfeeding and my baby was approx 1 week old I found this very stressful to have to leave him behind while I drove myself to hospital in dark winter conditions. On about the third night of doing this a different nurse gave me the option of taking a kit home and doing it myself. I couldn't understand why this wasn't offered as an option in the first Instance, it would have saved me a great deal of hassle and the hospital staff would have more time to deal with more serious cases.

When I finally got round to having the scan which I was given very little notice to get myself and baby ready for the appointment, I had been told before hand that I wouldn't be able to breastfeed for a while but on arrival was told that I wouldn't be able to even go near my baby for at least 12hours. By this time I was extremely upset that I had not been properly informed and not had the chance to prepare myself for this.

Thankfully nothing serious was found and I have since put it down to anxiety which I think affected me for a couple of weeks after the birth. This experience did nothing to help these feelings.