"Poor"

What I liked

Appreciated that the maternity services were extremely stretched and a lot of the staff remained friendly and polite throughout

Clean

What could be improved

The midwife that delivered my baby was quite simply horrible. She was rude to myself and my birthing partners. She gave me incorrect information which lead to me missing my opportunity to have an epidural after being induced. Was extremely heavy handed which lead to another nurse having to stitch me. Told me i was only 4cm dilated-my baby was delivered half an hour later. When i was in the second stage of labour my leg twitched-she then shoved my leg and said "i'm pregnant as well you know". If i wasnt in such pain i would have demanded another midwife there and then. She even tutted at me when she wanted me to go for a shower and i asked if i could hold my baby for the first time (an hour and a half after i gav birth)

I gave birth 9 months ago and my experience still upsets me. I am angry that one woman can have such an effect on what was the happiest day of my life-despite her best attempts to dampen it.

My whole experience at The Royal London was also dampened by the 4 hour wait i had to endure just to confirm whether my waters had broken of not. When i was finally admitted i had to sleep in a sweltering prenatal ward because there was no room on labour ward. Fans were disallowed and i had a florescent light above my head the entire night- needless to say i did not get a wink of sleep the night before i was due to give birth. I then had to wait another 12 hours before i was eventually taken to labour ward. After delivery i was told i could not go to post labour and had to return to the prelabour ward. I delivered my daughter at 1am having just been given a shot of pethidine and informed that my husband had to leave despite me barely being able to focus which i found very upsetting.

Anything else?

It saddens to me to say that i would absolutely not have another baby at RLH. Although it was mainly one woman who ruined the experience for me, all the other issues contributed to an overall very negative experience.