"We had a lovely experience."

I was introduced to the best start programme at 37 weeks pregnant. I was a little unsure about how this would impact on my pregnancy at this late stage and was ambiguous about how successful this would be given that I had continuity of care from my midwife and didn’t have a preference of what midwife(s) I saw at the hospital. How wrong I was.

My new allocated midwife Gillian was so attentive and personal but still gave me my space and listened to my opinion without making me feel like an over anxious expectant mother. This was my second pregnancy and I did feel when contacted the hospital in labour, first time round.... a little ‘fobbed off’. My first labour was very quick and had I listened to hospital advice I would have had my baby at home. I felt Gillian really respected how I felt this time and when in labour really listened to how I was feeling, went out her way to see me and examine me at home so I could stay here as long as possible and only be in hospital as long as I really had to.

She also went out her way to give me advice outwith her ‘core’ hours and was happy to adapt her schedule to support me for longer in labour if she needed to. Luckily she didn’t and the 2 midwives I had in the AMU unit, Donna and Carol were fantastic. As soon as I phoned to say my contractions had increased in strength and duration, carol arranged for me to come to hospital. When I arrived I was shown straight into a lovely room, given gas and air and made feel very welcome and comfortable.

On meeting carol and Donna they were both so professional but very friendly and comforting and made us feel so at ease. They talked us through everything. Encouraged me when I needed it most and made us feel like nothing was too much bother. We had a lovely experience. We were only in hospital 2 hours before having our baby daughter and left hospital 2 hours later. The room and all of the equipment was lovely and offered so many options. I can’t thank the Larkhall team enough and would recommend this programme to anybody.