"Perfect labour & delivery experience"

I moved to Calne last year and fell pregnant with my 3rd child shortly after. Having had 2 straight forward natural births previously I opted for a water birth at Chippenham and attended Chippenham hospital for all my antenatal appointments. The staff were all lovely, they were able to accommodate appointments to suit me, I was always seen on time & they were great with my 2yr old who attended the appointments with me and they gave him stickers for being so good, which he loved! For all my regular appointments I got to see the same Midwife, which was great as we got to build a nice relationship, they were very reassuring when I started having doubts about giving birth at the birthing centre in case I experienced any complications during labour. I went into labour in the early hours of the morning at home, 9 days overdue. I rang the birthing unit around 3am to let them know but I choose to stay at home because the pain was manageable even with contractions 3minutes apart. At 9am the pain was becoming uncomfortable although contractions were still 3minutes apart so we were told to make our way in. On arrival at the birthing centre I was greated by some lovely midwives who quickly ushered my husband & I into the birthing pool room where they started to fill the pool. My waters broke shortly after and I was 9cms dialated. They just managed to fill the pool in time for me to get in and my sons head to be born. Unfortunately his body did not follow as easily and I had to change positions in the pool and receive a bit of help from the midwives for my son to be delivered. Had it not have been for the midwife & student staying so calm I think I may have started panicking. I was then allowed to stay in the water for a while before getting out to deliver my placenta. Even with the injection it took a while to deliver my placenta and again, had the midwives not stayed so calm throughout I may have began panicking because I had not experienced this with my 2 previous births & I knew a lot of people who have had their placentas surgically removed. Following the birth & all our checks we were able to stay in the room we had given birth in, the after care was fantastic, we were brought tea & toast, which was offered on numerous times throughout our stay & even though my sons blood sugar levels were checked several times over a 6hour period due to weighing an unexpected 10lb7oz (!) we felt like we were given plenty of time & privacy on our own to bond with our new son.

The whole experience from pregnancy to birth at Chippenham was amazing and better than I could ever have wished for and I feel that this was all down to the midwives & staff within the unit. If I ever have any more children I won’t hesitate to return there again!