"Lovely childbirth team, but breastfeeding support was lacking"

I gave birth to my second daughter at Dr Gray’s maternity unit in Elgin in May 2024. I had a fantastic experience! The team that looked after me was Diane (neonatal midwife), Marina (2nd midwife), Gemma (student) and Sarah (healthcare support worker).

I had everything I wanted in the labour room, a lovely calm and supportive environment, use of the birthing pool and encouragement to follow what my body was telling me to do rather than any forced techniques.

Everyone was so lovely and caring, I remember remarking to my husband afterwards that we couldn’t have had better care if we had paid for private services.

A special mention to Sarah who (unprompted) grabbed my phone and snapped some pics of the moment our daughter was born. It was such a speedy birth my husband would never have had a chance to think to do that and I’ll cherish those pics forever.

I was given a private room after she arrived which was perfectly comfortable and great to have some privacy.

If I have anything constructive to say it would be that there seems to be a lack of feeding support. I deliberately stayed overnight as I wanted breastfeeding support after I had been unable to feed my first daughter but I did feel a bit left to my own devices.

Of course if I buzzed for attention through the night I was attended to and the staff were lovely but I didn’t necessarily know that I needed help, I was just trying to get on with it myself, whereas I think now because I said that’s why I wanted to stay overnight it would have been good if there had been a few more checks that first night.

I was discharged the next day. I was asked if I wanted support from the breastfeeding team which I said yes to, so I did get a call from them after a couple of days but I had a pretty challenging first couple of weeks as we really struggled to latch and I think if I had had a bit more support that first night it might have helped.