"5* Service - and tea & toast!"

I had my baby at Southend in July 2017.

I was very lucky as this was a low risk pregnancy and pretty straight forward birth with no complications.

I was in the midwife lead section.

I arrived just as the shifts were changing over, so I did wait around a bit initially, but in hindsight , it made much more sense to wait for nighttime shift to come on than handover after 20 minutes.

The 2 midwives were great.

A solid combination of competency and compassion - basically what you want in a midwife.

It definitely felt like we were all a team, getting the baby out.

The birthing suite was great.

Roomy with private shower and toilet which I used after the birth (baby pooed all down the side of me - nice).

I had a waterbath which was amazing, but there is also a bed in there and I believe birthing stalls if you're more into that.

After the birth, the midwives sorted me out and helped my husband with baby's nappies.

Then they made us TEA AND TOAST (literally my husband's favourite thing about the whole experience!) and gave us some quality time with baby before moving me onto the ward as he was born in the middle of the night.

Ward was fine.

Men not allowed the use our loo which was fair enough.

Even veggie & vegan options available to eat.

We told Bounty lady we didn't want to sign up and she didn't push us at all, gave us the freebies and left which was good as I've heard horror stories - although I am pretty good at an emphatic 'NO'.

Baby checks were thorough and carried out pretty promptly so we left in the afternoon, no overnight stay for me luckily.

Scans and care leading up to it were all fine too.

Overall, I had a great and very dignified experience.

I would definitely have my 2nd baby here if I have one.