"My birthing experience with my first baby."

This is about my birthing experience with my first child, at the Angliss Hospital in 2016.

Although my overall care at the hospital was ok when I gave birth to my first child, I am not keen on going back again. 

I was originally booked in for a c- sec., but ended up having to have an emergency one, when my water broke at home, at 38 weeks. 

I had to wait for the team to be available as they had another emergency c- sec. to perform before me. Which I understood. 

When I finally did go thru, about 3.5 hours later, I ended up so anxious and freaked out during the procedure that I was told later in recovery that I should seriously think about getting put under next time! 

Which I feel was unfair. 

What would have been much more helpful is if the team had talked me through the process while they were doing what they needed to. 

At one stage (my baby was breech) they had to push down on my chest to get the baby out- no one explained this to me! And I honestly thought at the time, they were trying to cave my chest in. It was the worst feeling in the world. An explanation would have gone a long way.

Also, while they were waiting for the epidural to take affect, they asked me many times if I could feel the ice they were pressing to my skin- so much so, that I felt they didn’t actually believe me, which set off my anxiety because I was scared they’d perform the surgery before believing me. It all felt rushed and I didn’t even relish the moment they finally showed me my baby, because I was so stressed! 

I’m also unhappy about the fact that my husband was never offered to have skin to skin contact with our baby- even though that had been offered as an option at the antenatal class. I was upset to see our baby wrapped up in towels when I got back to the room & not on my husband’s chest. (Yes, he should have asked, but he didn’t feel like that was an option, as he was basically left in the room by himself until I got there.) 

I also didn’t like the inconsistencies in the advice all the midwives shared. Not one had the same advice. Which made the whole experience that much more stressful! 

I also wasn’t told that I had to feed my baby every 3-4 hours - a new mum probably would need to be told that, right from the start- not the next night! 

Clearly I won’t be a first time mum this time around and I’m a lot more knowledgeable about having a baby, which will no doubt make this experience a much more positive one. But I still don’t want to go back to the Angliss. 

We had another bad experience with the Angliss with my first born when they were 6 months old & it, along with my first birth experience, has left a sour taste in our mouths.