"Maternity care at QEUH"

I have recently had my first baby and overall, I am delighted with the care I received. There was only one negative regarding my experience, which relates to other patient’s visitors on the postnatal ward.

Due to having placenta previa and vasa previa I was admitted to ward 48 for 19 days prior to my c section. It was hard being away from home for this length of time but the staff on the ward were absolutely wonderful. The healthcare support workers (Christine especially) always made an effort to chat to me. All of the midwives, although they were so busy, always made an effort to have a chat, listen to any concerns I had and answer any questions. I would like to especially mention Pam, Elisabeth, Stephanie, Aimee, Frances, Raj and Heather. Nothing was ever too much trouble despite how busy they were.

All of the staff on the elective team were great. I was absolutely terrified going in for my section and they done their best to put me at ease. It was a bit of a blur due to my nerves however I am so grateful to the team for safely delivering my baby, especially the doctor (I believe his name was David).

I was then transferred to ward 50, where I shared a room with two other new mums and this is where my experience wasn’t so great. I believe the visiting rules are no more than 2 visitors at one time. The mum in the bay next to me at 4-5 visitors at one point plus they were making noisy FaceTime calls during this time. They also had a takeaway delivered to the ward and I was shocked that the delivery driver delivered this straight to the room.

I understand that the patient centred visiting means that partners can stay overnight however the mums and partners I shared a room with were noisy at all hours of the night, having loud FaceTime calls and conversations. The midwives are far too busy carrying out their jobs at night to have to constantly tell people to respect other mothers on the ward.

This is a particularly vulnerable time for a woman and I found my first 48 hours on the post natal ward distressing at times due to the volume of visitors in the shared room, the noise levels, noisy partners staying over and random, unvetted takeaway delivery men being permitted on to the ward. Had the visitors and partners been more respectful of the other mothers on the ward, this would have been a different experience.

Putting that aside, the care I received was very good despite the staff being incredibly busy. Midwives Lindsay and Sharon were wonderful and so nurturing towards me and my baby. Allison was the star of the show for me, she helped me with breastfeeding my baby when I was really struggling. She took the time to explain positions and how to get a good latch and encouraged me to use my buzzer any time I wanted to latch baby so that she could make sure I was doing it correctly.

My baby is now 9 days old, gaining weight and the community midwife commented on how well he was feeding. I couldn’t have got this far with breastfeeding if it wasn’t for Allison.

Please pass on my gratitude to all of the staff mentioned. All of the staff I encountered during my pregnancy were a credit to the NHS.