"York maternity care"

I recently had my first baby at York Hospital and cannot compliment the staff enough on the level of care they provided not just medical care but support and advice to me and my husband during our stay.

I had requested a water birth and had my birth plan all ready. The staff all had a good read through of the plan and were aware of and followed my choices. We had one midwife taking care of us until there was a shift change when a new midwife took over. They clearly had good hand over procedures and were all introduced to us each change over.

The midwives stayed with us the whole time but stayed in the background and only came to us when we needed or she needed to take observations this was something I had requested in my birth plan to have as little interruption as possible.

Due to a few complications there were several occasions when we had to make a decision with regards to the birth, these were all explained to us in detail and we were allowed to make the decisions that we felt were righr for us.

The options they gave us were always centred around the wellbeing of the baby and myself.

Ultimately I ended up being induced and with epidural both of which I had not wanted and felt upset but it was a decision we made with the help and understanding from the staff and they were extremely empathetic to my dilemas in making these decisions and never rushed or tried to force one way or another unless they believe one option to be more medically sound.

Our son was born by assisted delivery which was.made more complicated due to his size and position and I nearly ended up with an emergency section but due to the determination of the surgical team we got him out just in time to prevent this.

Despite most of the birth plan going out the window the staff continued to follow my requests including allowing my husband and me to discover the sex of the baby ourselves.

As the baby was so engaged had we required a cesarian section this would have been very high risk to both me and the baby but the team worked extremely hard to get him out and avoid this.

After the surgery and also a couple of days later the doctor gave us a full explanation of exactly what had happened and why and gave us the opportunity to ask any questions.

Due to damage to myself during the delivery we stayed on the hospital for 3 days and the brilliant care from the labour ward continued through to G Ward where the midwives were there at hand any time you needed them. They all had great advice amd tips to help me with my recovery and also with feeding my son so when it came time to go home I felt a lot more confident in taking care of him.

I will always be eternally grateful to all the staff involved with my son's birth and cannot recommend them enough to other expectant parents.