"Much better than we thought it would be! Could be..."

What I liked

The midwives in the pre-natal ward, labour word and HDD unit were really friendly, supportive and helped throughout. They kept my wife and I updated on our progress throughout and, as she had complications, they were open and honest about the plan of action, even when things were going very differently to how we expected the birth to do so.

When things were getting complicated, we were constantly visited by consultants and registrars, who were kind and considerate and honest about the progress made. The Sisters on the Labour ward did constant visits to check on her progress throughout the 36+ hour labour and this reassured us that the care was remaining constantly high.

After the birth, the nursery nurses were incredible! They really wanted to support my wife in little things, such as feeding, getting the baby to sleep etc. They were generally lovely and friendly people who wanted to help out- worth their weight in gold!

What could be improved

The care in the post-natal ward was very different, as I have seen highlighted before!

The staff were run off their feet and this meant that we went from having someone with us all the time before entering the ward, to one day where neither my wife or the baby were given observations at all! On that day the midwife said at 2pm that she was going back to my wife and baby in two minutes to observe them... at 8pm I asked to see the senior midwife as they still hadn't been seen, who did and said nothing to help, including bringing my wifes midwife along, who just shouted at me, right from when she was walking to me down the coridoor, saying that she hadn't been able to wee all day so how was she meant to have a chance to see my wife, and there were some people that really needed her care... not at all friendly or caring!

On the other hand, we had one midwife on the post-natal ward during the day on two days who was incredible... really lovely and caring... I suppose it all depends. My advice though- speak up sooner rather than later!