"Regional Maternity Care"

I gave birth at Geraldton regional hospital recently. The midwives were phenomenal and definitely showed empathy and care however they seem so overrun and busy that a lot of things were missed and in hindsight I don’t regret birthing I can see how things could go wrong if I wasn’t informed. Firstly, the positives. The two appointments I had with the midwives prenatally were excellent.

Jaimee was one of them and also ended up being my midwife for the birth. The presence and knowledge and support was excellent and I couldn’t fault her and so grateful for her helping bringing my baby into the world. Leah was also meticulous detail driven and kind.

Katy on day 3 helped me with tears and doubts of feeding. Taught me to pump and trust myself. Kindness in the chaos.

The things that made me doubt the system included my induction happening because there was no other day to be induced in Geraldton even though baby myself were fine and I believe there was no need for an induction yet.

The midwives are so run-off their feet that when you call the bell sometimes it could take up to half an hour to 45 minutes for someone to come. My baby wasn’t weighed until 12 hours after birth and that was only because I prompted several times. This meant that the baby’s weight came after eight poos from that first night.

Unfortunately I witnessed a nurse being quite rude to an aboriginal patient. I’m not not sure of the backstory but I felt they were not treated with the empathy that I know others I had shared rooms with had been. This nurse also returned my baby to me at 3:30 am in the morning after a hearing check and the first thing they said was, does deafness run in the family. Alarmed I said no why? The staff member said the midwife who collected my baby should have asked prior. I then had to press to ask the result of the test which they said was fine before leaving abruptly. This was a very anxiety inducing way to discuss results with a new mum.

My purple book said a doctor checked over my baby before discharge but no doctor ever even looked at my baby after the c section. The child health nurse was shocked at this and I ended up having to go see a GP about the issue less than three days after discharge - as I had asked for someone to look at a potential issue raised by the OB at birth and followed up several times about a paediatrician check I was promised but never came. Weights were not recorded in my purple book and then could not be located.

This is just a few of the many things that were not streamlined or automated in process and left me confused, feeling vulnerable and unheard. There were many times I had to re ask for something and had to wait, I believe, to the detriment of my baby.