"Surgical abortion, conscious sedation at 8 weeks"

On 16th sept I attended the clinic for a consultation. There was a long wait! I was first seen by a member of staff, who asked my reasons why I wanted to make this decision and asked what children I had already. Then they said to me, "oh that a shame, this baby could be a girl!" I decided to ignore it as I knew the decision was right for my family. Then I saw a nurse who did a scan, they scanned me for 2 mins and said they could only find a sac and no baby so sent me to a&e, as it was a Saturday I waited there for 5 hours but obviously they couldn't do much until the Monday when EPU was open. I went back on the Monday and sat in EPU for another 5 hours to be told immediately when I was scanned a baby with a hearbeat was present.

I then called the clinic to let them know and book in the surgical procedure to be told they couldn't book me in because my BMI was too high, so I could have the pill (which was not advised by the consultant at the hospital because of my history) or I could have the op with no pain relief. I was in tears as no one explained this to me at the consultation. I spoke to the acting manager and we agreed that I would try to lose weight to bring my bmi down in the 8 days before my surgery was booked so I could be considered for CS. I know I'm a bigger girl but was shocked my bmi was so high. I asked what my measurements were and they were massively wrong! My height was out by 1.5 inches which makes a massive difference to bmi. I then spent the next 8 days worrying I would turn up and not be able to have the procedure done.

When I arrived today I was told I was not booked in at all!!!! I could have cried. But the receptionist was fantastic and booked me in and fast tracked me. The acting manager had forgotten to book me in, despite me calling them 2/3 times within 8 days.

I saw an amazing nurse who took time, reassured me and did all my measurements again to discover my height was wrong and my weight was much lower. This nurse really took the time to make sure I was aware of everything. I then had the surgery, all the staff were nice and kind. The sedation definitely took the edge off, I'm not going to lie, it was very uncomfortable but it was over very quickly.

The aftercare team were also great. Really chatty and caring. This place saved themselves with the staff I dealt with today, I was on the brink of a breakdown until I got there and felt so at ease. Especially with the previous staff.

I had always said all along my partner could collect me (you must have someone to collect you) but he couldn't come in as he needed to look after our baby, up until the day this was a problem with the staff I spoke to. I explained this on the day and they were fine and led me out the back way to his car when I was done. Nothing was too much. I hope I never find myself here again but my goodness there are some fabulous staff there.

Unfortunately in my opinion some staff need retraining or need a new career.