"Loved the Natural Birth Centre, but horrible..."

The antenatal care was quite good as my pregnancy was really easy and I looked and felt great. Except one situation when the midwife forgot to tell me that there was something wrong with my blood test (as I understood it clogged so it means someone forgot to send it to laboratory on time) and it needed to be redone. When it was finally redone it was sent to the laboratory in a wrong tube (that’s what I was explained) and it needed to be done the third time. Luckily the test showed that there are no abnormalities (I was 20 weeks pregnant already).

When my waters broke I called the hospital and was told to come for a check. When I arrived the midwife didn’t even check me internally and sent me back home. It takes me about 40 minutes to come to hospital by a car so it’s quite a journey when you are in labour. 4 hours later I came back in severe pain, and 2 more hours later I gave birth. Next time my waters brake I will not go to a hospital until I have strong contractions and I will save myself a journey and energy.

The Natural Birth Centre was amazing – a spacious and cosy room for me and my family (my husband and my sister were with me), the midwifes looked a bit too young but they were helpful and understanding, not rushing me at all. I gave birth in water which was a great experience and a great way of reducing the pain. I wanted drugs for my pain because I was about to give birth (and nobody understood that it was the peak of my contractions simply because I was not screaming) but the midwives tried to avoid the drugs and offered me to go into the bath – I am thankful for that, my labour was purely natural with no drugs! The only thing I didn’t like was that we were rushed to go home several times.

As much as I loved the natural Birth Centre the postnatal ward was horrible – the midwives and nurses are extremely rude, making new mother feel like she knows nothing and hospital staff knows better, no support at all neither in breastfeeding, nor in caring for the baby.