"Child birth"

After a very calm period of contractions, we were transferred from the Family Birth Centre (FBC) to the hospital's Birthing Ward. In my opinion the differences in services offered could not be more black and white. 

Our birth plan was completely ignored, the calm setting that we established upon arrival was shattered when both doctors and other nurses and midwives entered the room. 

There seemed to be a lot of stress and intensity for no reason, from my understanding our baby was not in any danger and just needed some gentle assistance to come out. 

The doctors felt otherwise. They gave mother a second catheter after the first one was given only 5 minutes before. After vacuuming our baby out they ignored our requests for delayed cord clamping. As the doctor was going to clamp the umbilical cord, they had mistakenly picked up the wrong instrument and cut the cord instead of clamping it. This led to a lot of blood across my partner and our baby.

Once the clamp was in place our requests for skin to skin contact were again ignored with our healthy and content baby being removed to be examined for no particular reason. 

The lack of communication, the amount of staff and just directness that the staff seem to operate at is bordering on rudeness. 

There seems to be a culture amongst the staff that they will do what's required and ignore your requests, questions or desires about how you will birth your baby.

At the end of the day, we have a healthy baby and a mother that is a little bruised but mostly okay. 

We just want to see a bit more care around how the staff conduct themselves and how they communicate with patients at KEMH.