"Maternity"

I felt very rushed.

I was booked to go to the mater, but with covid this was changed to the Royal.

I laboured at home for as long as possible and was fully dilated on arrival. 

But I didn't have the urge to push immediately & time could have been taken to check my notes and birth preferences. There was no thought given to hypnobirthing and having an active labour/birth. 

Instead I was told to get on my back and coached to push. I tried to say between contractions, do I have to go on my back? Can I just take my time, but I was told you are going to meet you baby soon. As if I needed to be psyched up. I had laboured at home, so I think I was fine. 

I was asked /told they were going to break my waters - we are going to break your waters now - OK? Not really informed consent... 

I think there were 5 people in the room. 

All very different to my birth preferences. 

This was quite upsetting after the elation of having my baby arrive safely, as this will be my last baby. It felt like I wasn't listened to. That my preparation and management of labour in terms of hypnobirthing didn't count. There wasn't much encouragement, other than to push. 

However the staff were otherwise very nice. 

There was poo in the waters, so we had to stay to be monitored. 

The food was quite poor and the showers weren't working.