"A good experience of RAH Maternity Unit"

I feel people bad mouth the Royal Alexandra Hospital a lot. I haven't used any of their other services but I have used the maternity twice so far in my life! Last being 2011.

From the moment I attended my midwife appointment at the doctors surgery I felt looked after and confident in the care I was going to receive.

I found all the midwives extremely friendly, and if I ever had a problem they were at the other end of the phone, nothing was ever deemed to trivial to ask their advice over.

It was consultant led care and although I rarely saw a consultant (normally saw a doctor just doing her rounds in obs & gyn) I never had a problem with any of them. They did the exams they were supposed to etc.

I was a planned c-section due to some previous complications and on the day of my arrival although my bloods had gone astray that were taken a few days previously, it didn't mean I had to wait any longer, there were 3 of us so I simply was 3rd to go!

I had a very relaxed and happy experience (apart from the actual labour starting and having contractions an hour before I was due to go down! but we can't blame the hospital for mother nature) and the after care was A1 perfect!

The midwives were around me constantly after baby was brought back to labour ward and I was checked over every so often for about 2-3 hours until I was ready to be sent to a ward. I had to spend an extra day in hospital, due to the paediatricians being unable to carry out normal rounds for discharge (there was a crisis in the SCBU and the doctors simply couldn't leave), and although a bit saddened by not getting home when I thought I was going home I totally understood the reasons and knew if my baby was the one in SCBU I would be wanting the full attention of the doctors.

Plenty of advice was available for helping you breast feed and midwives were on call if you were having trouble (a few women on the ward were having trouble feeding and through the night midwives were happy to assist if they could).

At home I was followed up by the midwives for a around 4-5 days and then transferred to my health visitor.

Overall I had no unhappy experiances with the Maternity through both my pregnancies. I am so fortunate to have this hospital only 5 minutes from my house and hope it stays put for a long long time.