"The level of care I recieved was outstanding"

I have nothing but praise and gratitude for the staff in the maternity department of wishaw general. Throughout my difficult pregnancy I suffered high blood pressure, threatened preterm labour and had to be induced early. I attended traige and the day unit on various occasions and was admitted to both wards 22 and 23 more times than I care to remember and the level of care I recieved was outstanding, the staff during my labour and delivery on ward 24 were fantastic too and I cannot thank them enough.

My daughter had a some difficulties in her first few hours and days as a result we were taken from the ward to the transitional care unit, which I had never heard about before, there they quickly identified that my baby needed to be cared for in the nursery. While she was there I recieved phenomenal support from the staff when expressing milk to be given to her, they gave me advice, emotional support and outstanding care to enable me to do as much of my babies care as I could, making a difficult and stressful situation much more manageable. As soon as my daughter was well enough she was brought to the tcu where her treatment continued, having the midwives and nursery nurses invaluable support and care enabled me to bond with my baby and establish a breastfeeding routine which without this would have been almost impossible as I would have been discharged and my little girl would have had to stay on the neonatal ward. I would never have been able to be present for all of her feeds and would have missed those precious first couple of weeks with my baby.

Staff helped me with and advised me about tube feeding, expressing milk, bathing my tiny daughter, breastfeeding and many other aspects of her care. They celebrated small achievements with her progress and supported both myself and my husband emotionally when when we suffered setbacks. My husband was able to stay with us on a couple of occasions which was one of the most amazing things about this unit, we could bond as a little family and he could help with aspects of her care and support me assisted our transition home greatly.

The weeks from my induction to my daughter finally being well enough to come home (following some little setbacks) were very difficult and some of the most stressful I have been through in my life but this tiny unit within the hospital and the dedicated, hardworking and fantastic staff in it made a huge difference to me and my family. I dont know how we would have coped with those difficult early days without it.

I will never be able thank the staff enough for everything.