"Great pre-natal and delivery, terrible..."

I had my baby at The Royal London Hospital four month ago. I was impressed with my pre-natal care - scans and appointments and thought this was a good indicator that the rest of my pregnancy would go well at the hospital.

From arriving at hospital in labour to the delivery I feel I was well cared for. The midwives were caring and I felt the team who delivered my baby by forceps were great!

My post-natal care on the maternity ward however was terrible and had such a negative impact on myself for some time afterwards. As a first time mother everything was new and I felt very vulnerable, I was having real trouble breast-feeding and found that the midwives were dismissive of my concerns and any concerns in general. I left hospital unable to breastfeed.

I was on the ward for three days, on my final day, I was told I was going to be discharged. I waited all day, again no support, no help on breast-feeding, no one came to tell me why my discharge was taking so long. I was finally discharged at 11pm!

I'm aware that the midwives and NHS staff are under an enormous amount of pressure but all I needed was one person to ensure that everything was going OK with feeding. I felt completely ignored.

Also, another thing to add. I was asked to give a review on an iPad a couple of hours after I arrived on the ward. As I thought it was for my previous care I gave a great review. I later found out it was for the post-natal ward that I had just arrived on, hence it does not reflect my thoughts and feelings at all! I suggest that these reviews should take place after you have been discharged for a true reflection.