"Great experience for a very special time..."

What I liked

I gave birth to my second child recently, and could not fault the care myself or my newborn baby received. I arrived on the labour ward at around 12.30 and my baby was born 45 minutes later. The midwife and student midwife - who were with me all the time - made me feel at ease and were very encouraging. Following the birth, I was treated with respect and all of my needs were attended to. They also ensured that my husband's needs were met; as it was nearly 3 in the mornig by the time we were moved up to the postnatal ward, the student midwife wanted to make sure that he was okay to drive home having had no sleep which I thought was extremely thoughful. I was lucky enough to get a side room on the postnatal ward, and at no time felt that I was alone or forgotten about. The staff were always happy to help, particularly with feeding, and were polite and friendly. My only criticism would be that the delivery suite and postnatal ward was very, very cold (very unusual in my experience!) and as a result my baby was cold and needed monitoring overnight. I was also cold, but we were both provided with blankets.

What could be improved

The unit could have been warmer. Also, the paediatrician arrived as I was feeding my baby, having spent considerable time getting her to latch on in the first place. Obviously, he has a schedule to follow, but I hated that I had to end my baby's feed very prematurely, which meant unnecessary distress for my baby.

Anything else?

I had my last baby at Fairfield. The experience and NMGH was so much better, and as a result, I have been able to fully enjoy the early days of my baby's life, so thank you to all.