"Great support throughout pregnancy and delivery"

I delivered my beautiful boy July 2017 in Royal free. The care I received from the day 1 of my pregnancy to my delivery was amazing. I had a few complications in the beginning of my pregnancy for which I had go to the early pregnancy unit quite often. Here I was well taken cared of by some really lovely midwives and consultants. Once I got to my 12th week I started having regular midwife appointments and I was lucky enough to have the same midwife throughout my pregnancy so was able to built a good relationship. Towards the end of my pregnancy I again started struggling. I ended up visiting triage from my 35th week. Again the midwifes and doctors I met here were just great. They didn't leave anything to chance, I was very closely monitored and was fitted in to have emergency consultant appointments every 3-4 days. Blood tests (to rule out liver damage, gestational diabetes), scans (Doppler scan, growth scan) were all fitted in the last minute. All this reassured me that my baby was in the safe hands. When I entered 37th week, my consultant had advised me to have my baby sooner rather than later and did a sweep. After this my water broke the same night and I was told to come in and get checked on how far I dilated. Since I didn't dilate much (just 1cm) I was asked to go back home and rest. After about 4 hours my pain got horrible and I went back in. Seeing how much I was suffering they offered to take me in when I was just 2cm. I loved the midwife who checked me because they never once made me feel

I was exaggerating (given they see women in pain every single day and of course I was no different). Having someone care for me like I was the most important patient was all I wanted and got. I was transferred from triage to maternity ward to birth centre and finally labour ward. In the birth centre I had a lovely room with a jacuzzi and two dedicated midwife's. I was given gas and air / pithadine for pain relief here. Sadly my labour didn't progress after two days so was then transferred to the labour ward. Oh what lovely people work in this place. I felt nothing less than private care. I immediately had two doctors checking on me. When I requested for epidural I was quickly seen by the anaesthetist. I was nervous of the procedure because of my slip disc but the doc was very good. They were really patient with me (thanks to slip disc) and only left when they was completely satisfied that it was working well. Finally after a few hours I fully dilated and reached the final stage of pushing. When my LO refused to come out I was rushed to have an emergency c section. The two doctors were gem, reassuring me that everything was going to be alright and so was it. Overall I had a lovely bunch of people taking care of me and my baby really well.

The post natal care could've been better (it was not bad just felt the staff were over worked). Also the food wasn't that good. The biggest downside of this place is parking (too expensive).