"Maternity Care"

Firstly, I may just have had an unfortunate experience when giving birth to my daughter back in August 2011, and who knows maybe things have changed now. I was placed onto the High Dependency Unit after having had my daughter due to the amount of blood I lost. The team here were absolutely fantastic, although clearly there is a higher ratio of nurses to patients due to nature of ward. The following day I moved onto the standard matenrity ward, and was actually quite shocked by the poor level of care and communication given by staff. There appeared to be no formal handover of notes. The High Dependency Unit told me I had to ensure that the nurses removed my catheter early in day so that I could start to be mobile. I requested this at 10.00am, and after several more requests, was finally removed at 20.30 that day after visiting hours ended. I was exhausted and had to shower alone whilst feeling incredibly faint. Whilst in the shower the nurses started to bang on the door asking me to come out to stop my baby crying...I came out as quickly as I could to find the nurses had left my daughter in her bed, but in the middle of the ward and she was screaming. As a first time Mum then, I have to say I was deeply affected by the treatment I received from the nurses, particualrly as I was completely patient and reasonable at all times. In hindsight, I reaise how unnacceptable their behaviour was, and wish I'd written official complaint for the state I was left in for hours. My only advice is that being patient with the nursing team will not necessarily lead to better care. Be polite, but if you need the care push to receive it. I would certainly be more assertive if I had to go back there again. I am now pregnant with second child, and am determined not to go back to Kingston as would rather put the epsiode behind me, and hopefully have more positive memories the second time around.