"Shame some of the nurses had forgotten the caring..."

What I liked

The ante natal care at Kings was brilliant. Good facilities and kind, compassionate staff.

The Breast feeding specialists were my saviours - amazing, but now I hear taken off the ward.

What could be improved

Once I had my daughter by c section, she was transferred up onto the Newborn Intensive Care Unit. Because of this, I was put on a gynae ward, not maternity. The midwives there were not caring, and seemed overworked, and said they were short-staffed. The trainee's told me they couldn't wait to finish training then leave the country! The toilets and showers were full of blood if you didn't get in first thing on a morning.

Up at the NICU it was worse. There were some absolute angels up there, but there were some nurses who spoke to you very rudely, made decisions about the care of your baby without consultation and one of them even gave my daughter someone elses breastmilk! She later apologised and I was told there would be an investigation, but it didn't help my already fragile state! The ward matron was no help whatsoever - she only seemed like she wanted to protect her staff, and I had to go to the patients complaints group in the end.

More compassion from those nurses this applies to, please! We know you're under pressure, but these are our babies.

Anything else?

I have been under other depts at Kings, and had no problems - excellent care and staff. Shame this experience made me think twice.