"The birth of my first baby"

In regards to my antenatal care, I felt a little let down. Most midwives were lovely to me but there were two in particular that let me down, I didn't want to give blood at the booking appointment and my midwife was fine with that and very respectful of my decision. When I went for my next appointment, I believe it was after my twelve week scan at the hospital, I saw a different midwife who tried to pressure me into letting her take blood from me, she made my partner believe I was harming our baby by not getting it done as he had no knowledge of what any of the booking bloods were being done for so was only relying on what the midwife was telling him, so he then tried persuading me as well as the midwife and I was very upset by it.

A midwives role is not to make decisions for a woman or to pressure her to make a decision she doesn't want to, its only to give her all the information she needs and support her in making a decision for herself, much like my first midwife did who was very respectful and supportive of my choice not to have bloods done, whereas the other midwife tried to pressure me and use my partners lack of knowledge as a way of getting him to force me into doing it as well. I did call and complain about this midwife and asked not to be cared for by her again, and the head of midwifery spoke with me and was lovely, however it was something I was sad to have happened.

Later on in my pregnancy, I went to see another midwife for an appointment at the hospital, she was one of the charge midwives and I felt she treated me differently than other women because I am a student midwife myself, I had asked her if she would check to see if my babies head was engaged as I felt it might be judging by some symptoms I had been having, however when I explained to her she replied "It's just your babies head pushing down on your bladder, shouldn't you know that already?" however I was just a first year student at the time and was there for an antenatal appointment, not there to be quizzed on how good a student I was based on my midwifery knowledge. If I was to have another baby I wouldn't tell the midwifes I was a student midwife as I felt it did change the way they treated me and I would of liked to have been treated like any other pregnant woman instead.

Thankfully those were the only two experiences that stood out to me, every other midwife was lovely to me and i feel pleased with the care I received.

The birth itself was quite rapid, my first midwife Joanne was so respectful of my wishes to have complete silence (noise really irritated me when I was in labour) and she didn't speak to me unless she really needed to, she asked me about my studies but didn't treat me different because I was a student midwife, she just treated me the same as any other woman in labour. She was great and I got on well with her, she was so patient and spent an hour after the birth trying to stitch me because every time she went to do it I moved further up the bed from her because it hurt. I had super low iron levels after giving birth and felt so dizzy and weak and she helped me get off the bed which took a while and then when I asked her if I could sleep in the toilet because I was so dizzy, she was so funny and encouraged me back to the bed. She must have thought I was such a drama queen but honestly giving birth just took it right out of me and I was so helpless. I gave her a card and chocolate to thank her for putting up with me! (even though I got there fully dilated and was only in labour for an hour and a half, she still did a lot for me!)

Postnatally, my midwife Anne was great and we gave her a bar a card and chocolates as well to say thank you and she'll be happy to know that I'm still breastfeeding my baby 14 months later! Everyone that visited me was so supportive and I have no complaints to make about my postnatal care.

Overall a good experience of NHS Forth Valley Maternity care with just a few hiccups in the beginning! :-)