"I gave birth to my first son in January..."

What I liked

I gave birth to my first son in January 07 and then my twin boys in November 08 at PMU. The midwifes and doctors were fantastic especially with my first born. I had to be induced but unfortunatly I had to wait all day as the unit was so busy and I would've liked the same midwife throughout my labour as there were quite a few changes. However I couldn't fault the midwifes dedication and felt very safe in their hands. In the end I needed an assisted delivery which was very hard both emotionally and physically but all staff took great care of me. The nurses would take care of my son in the early hours so I could get some rest. The wards were very clean, there was always cleaners around and everyone was friendly.

When I gave birth to my twin boys (8 weeks early) in Nov 08 I was rushed in as an emergency and felt very scared. Again all the midwives and doctors were fantastic but as I had to be transferred to Addenbrookes with one of my twins a few hours after delivery most of my immediate after care was in Cambridge.

What could be improved

I would say the breast feeding advice wasn't as good as what I recieved at Addenbrookes, Cambridge. I had one to one advice about expressing milk and detailed leaflets and information about how to do it properly. They took all the time that I needed and nothing was too much trouble for them. I didn't recieve this type of information at PMU, I did feel quite alone and felt that I was just left to get on with it (with my first born). Consquently with my first born I gave up breast feeding after 1 month due to two bouts of breast infections and never felt I was shown how to do it properly. I found the approach at Addenbrookes extremely useful and although I couldn't breast feed my twin boys as they were in Specail care for 3 weeks I felt the information and support I recieved at Addenbrookes would have persuaded me if things had turned out differently.

Anything else?

All the staff at PMU, especially the midwives and doctors were dedicated, professional and hardworking. However they do have too much to do, overbearing workloads and not enough staff. I had very good care both before and after my two pregnancy's but feel (through no fault at all of the staff) it could have been better in certain areas but this I feel is down to the resources and the lack of.

Keep up all you good work, many thanks