"The very best of care"

I had my baby at the Lister in February this year and I am really pleased to say that we all had such fantastic care. The units also have such a lovely feel and great facilities and it helped to make the experience that much more comfortable. I had a very long labour which saw me in what seemed to be every maternity related department during my stay! The midwife and consultant led units are beautiful, they have large rooms and are spotless. I was lucky enough to use the pool in the CLU and it was heavenly. The wards are not quite as nice but they are fine, similar to other hospital wards, I got to stay on both Dacre and Gloucester. The thing that really made the experience good for us was the staff. They were attentive, kind and caring and obviously highly trained and professional as you would expect. I found labour and birth to be fairly stressful events, especially with some unexpected complications, but I really did feel taken care of. My birth did not go according to plan but the staff were very good at informing us about what was going on, giving us options and information and allowing us to have a role in the decision making. They were also very good at encouraging me and reminding me of things I had wanted on my birth plan when I was flagging. This was really important to me afterwards because although I ended up with an emergency c-section I did feel that I had tried my hardest and the staff had kept me on track, this helped lessen the feeling of failure that I felt afterwards. The staff on Gloucester ward were great and I was very well looked after, I was very frequently observed and there was plenty of help to establish breastfeeding. They also allowed me to talk to them about what had happened and this really helped me to process it, this was really important to me and I really appreciated their time. I will never forget the kindness and care I was shown in such a vulnerable time of my life, one of the midwives from Dacre even came to find me to see my new baby the next day. The only slight criticism was that my husband had to go home once I was out of recovery as our baby had been born in the night, it was quite bewildering to be on the ward on my own with a newborn, I was immobile and exhausted as well as having had had lots of drugs so wasn't really 'with it'. The staff were good at checking on me and coming to give me my baby when I called the buzzer or waved but it was a very hard night, having said that I think my husband was glad to go home to rest and I do understand why men are not allowed to stay on the ward overnight. Although not quite what I was expecting my experience at the Lister was fantastic. I felt safe at all times and was very well looked after. The staff are a credit to the unit. Thank you so much.