"Dolphin ward"

My 4 week old baby was admitted to dolphin ward and we were in for 2 nights and found most of the staff to be supportive, respectful and caring.

Unfortunately I feel the communication is severely lacking as nobody told me anything about the parents room (the only thing I was given was a slice of bread on the first morning I was in and the parents room has a kettle and toaster) nobody told me about the play room (my nearly 5 year old was climbing the walls with boredom when she was with us), nobody told me the ward staff will wash and sterilise bottles or provide milk for babies. This all meant in the 2 days I was there and staying with my small baby, I wasnt aware I could go and make myself a drink or maybe some toast using the parent room. I realised during the first night I only had one bottle left for my baby and was therefore panicking that it wouldn’t be enough for her and subsequently held out on feeding her for a whole hour while she was crying. I ended up asking if there was somewhere I could wash and sterilise her bottles only then to be told they would do them

and then even brought a bottle made by them where they do actually have milk available. When I later needed one of my bottles back, on asking a nurse for it (whilst my baby was screaming in my arms as she was hungry) she told me she would get it for me but was busy so I’d have to wait. Obviously I appreciate staff are incredibly busy but babies do not wait when they are hungry! Luckily another nurse went and got it straight away. Nobody told me about being able to get a parking permit until the day we were discharged. I spent a fortune on parking. Spent a fortune on food and drink as literally NOTHING is offered to parents, even those (like me) who had been with my poorly child 24/7 for 2 days, surviving on maybe an hours broken sleep each night. I feel at the very least, parents staying should be offered this as you need it to keep your strength up and can’t aways leave your child to get yourself food and drink. I wasn’t even offered any water to drink. I had to ask for it. That was on the first morning and I wasn’t given anymore for the rest of our stay. My baby wasn’t given a blanket or anything for her crib, even though I was told she’d be given one as she’d had a wee on her one from home whilst we tried to collect a wee sample. The second night we were in, my daughter was so unsettled and by about 5am I was so exhausted, finding it hard to function. I was told the night before that I would be left to sleep if my baby needed feeding or changing and they would see to her as it was obvious to all I needed some rest. My baby was fed once by a nurse (I’d been asleep for an hour) but I was then woken and given my baby, who was extremely irritable. I repeatedly asked for support but didn’t feel I got any. On one occasion I pressed the call button in my room twice and nobody came only to find 5 or 6 staff members chatting at the desk!

Staff were lovely, but terrible communication