"Birth of my Daughter"

Having to rush home from a wedding in Spain I was already anxious about my Daughter arriving six and a half weeks early. My Fiance went to antenatal classes in July with swollen ankles and the midwife took her blood pressure and decided my fiance needed to go to hospital. Her high blood pressure was due to preaclampsia and the consultant decided she would have a section.

I was by her side Friday 10 am and up to ninety. When we were told my daughter was only going to weigh 3 to 4 pounds we were both concerned but the staff from labour suite reasured us it was going to be fine. On Saturday 5th my daughter was born at 9-46 2. 99 pounds by section absolutely delighted we were as we have been trying for a couple of years to conceive. We briefly met her then Special care baby unit (scbu) took her away to see she was OK. We were only in theatre for 30 mins and for all the time I never was anxious about what was going on I think this was because all the staff carried themselves so well and displayed professionalism at all times ( hat of to you guys brilliant team ).

Our journeys next stop was Labour suite were the staff couldn't do enough for us to make sure we were all OK. Hours felt like days as we waited to see our beautiful daughter. When we got through to scbu an hour or so later to see our daughter we were greeted by the lovely staff of scbu and told all they were doing was keeping her warm and feeding her. It was a bit overwhelming to see our daughter in an incubator with a feeding tube in and things in her hand for her to take medication. Our worries were soon away as we got to know the staff and build a relationship with them. It was then we realised we were surrounded by yet more people that knew exactly what they were doing and had such a caring side to them. Everything was explained to us in detail what they were doing and why. If you asked a question it would be answered and explained in depth. Not having had a new baby I was happy that this team of brilliant people were on hand at all times to look after our daughter and reasure us it was all good. From myself learning how to feed her, help my fiance with expressing to learning how to bath and change her even after we got our daughter home we could still phone up at any time for support when we needed it. (keep doing what you are doing as I felt the care was second to none thank you so much).

My fiance stayed in ward 17 for a few nights to recover from her operation. The staff again couldn't do enough in making sure her every need was seen to. Such a great team thank you.

When my fiance got home we felt a bit weird leaving our daughter in the hospital but again we knew she was in the right place and had the right people looking after her.

Our daughter was in hospital for four weeks progressively getting stronger soon she was on a bottle and then the feeding tube came out it was all forward progress. When we were in hospital we ate at the hospital canteen every night which allowed us to spend maximum time with our baby. We could never have afforded this without the discounts we received for the food. Again most grateful for this service Which assisted us in our journey.

All in all we owe a lot to the staff at the BGH from Labour suite, Theatre, Ward 17, Special Care Baby Unit, you guys are amazing a complete credit to yourselves and the NHS we are so appreciative that we have people like you all to take care of us in our hour of need. I have never really spent much time in hospital and now have an understanding of how it works. Lots of good people doing the right thing. Our daughter is now 6 pounds and 6 weeks old and settled into home life brilliantly. We all thank you so much including big brother.