"Maternity Services"

My daughter recently had her first baby at James Cook Hospital. I would like to thank the superb Midwives that cared for my daughter in the Central Delivery Suite. The Midwives involved provided excellent care delivery and were truly professional in all aspects. The Central Delivery Suite Midwives offered excellent support and were extremely patient centred. The aftercare on Ward 17 sadly, was not of the same high standard as had been given in the Central Delivery Suite. Having had an emergency Caesarian Section I feel my daughter was not provided with the level of care that she should have had following surgical intervention. My daughter was pretty much left to fend for herself and her new born whilst she was still numb from the epidural she'd had for surgery. The baby was left in a crib next to my daughter's bed and despite being unable to function properly, there was an assumption my daughter was able to attend to her baby. In addition there was little support to help with bottle feeding and more emphasis was given to those breast feeding. From my own perspective, there needs to be more support for new parents at a ward level i.e. to advise them about how to bathe baby, feed baby and also with giving advice on what to expect following Caesarian Section. In addition, the hospital car parking situation is such that new parents can have quite a trek from the Maternity Unit to the main car park. Not such a long time ago it was common practice that one of the nurses would walk out of the ward area with new parents and support them. As a result of the difficulties my daughter experienced, she would only stay in hospital for a short period of time due to the lack of support on the ward.