"I chose to have my baby in hospital ..."

What I liked

I chose to have my baby in hospital so that a full complement of medical staff would be on hand should there be any complications. Thankfully there were none so I cannot comment on the standard of expertise etc, however I was perfectly happy with the medical care provided by the midwives, and the midwife who delivered my baby was all I could have asked for, helpful, friendly and respectful.

What could be improved

The maternity ward can be a lonely place. I was a second time Mum, but found the experience very similar to that I had in September 2006 when I had my first baby. You are very much left to get on with things yourself and if you ring for staff you can be waiting a long time. I found that it was necessary to request pain relief several times and it took well over an hour for even simple paracetamol to be forthcoming. In the scheme of things this does seem a little petty to complain about but one of the other women on the ward with me had had a caesarean and was clearly in significant pain and she too had to wait some time for someone to provide her with additional medication. I gave birth just before midnight and was very keen to get home the following day. As everything had gone smoothly and baby and I were well I was told I could go home that morning, but in the end I had to badger staff constantly to move things along and in the end it was 9pm before all the paperwork was in place and I could finally leave. Whether this was all down to a shortage of staff or just poor organisation and communication I am not sure, but either way I am sure there are improvements that could be made.

I did also have some concerns over the level of cleanliness in the ward, in particular in the bathrooms.

Anything else?

Overall I did not have a bad experience and was given no reason to doubt that my baby would have been well taken care of medically if so required, but I would not have wanted to stay in any longer than absolutely necessary.