"Pre natal care and birthing care"

Anything else?

My partner was taken into the JPH delivery suite, suffering contractions. The baby is her second child, so we had no reason to suspect it would be anything other than a straight forward labour.

Her midwifery sister was supported by a student nurse.

She was taken to the birthing pool and everything proceeded normally.

During this time they could not be more attentive, encouraging and supportive.

It transpired that the birth of our baby was to be more traumatic, as the baby was large and my partner was not!

Her final stage of labour which normally takes approximately an hour or so (we were told) took nearly 4 hours and was very traumatic to both my girlfriend and our baby.

My partner was understandably distressed, as was I.

However, the staff could not have been more supportive. They kept us informed with clear, concise detail.

The midwife for the night shift was equally supportive. The day staff stayed on past their shift to assist my girlfriend, to us that meant so much, as they went the extra mile. The next morning, they came to find us to ensure both my girlfriend and our baby were ok.

We both agreed that the whole experience would have been so much more traumatic had the staff been less caring and supportive and who knows, could have been worse for our baby.

We would like formal thanks to be passed to the staff mentioned as NHS staff receive such bad press and as far as my girlfriend and I are concerned, it should be praise where praise is due. Thank you very much to the midwifery staff for the safe delivery of my son Williams.