"Maternity Services"

Many months on from the birth of my first child at Osborne Park Hospital, I feel a sense of both immense gratitude and bitter disappointment. 

I can’t fault the care I received prior to, and during delivery - the midwives and doctors who guided me through the process (and patched me up at the end) were outstanding in their care and compassion in my opinion. They responded swiftly and confidently when circumstances took a turn for the worse, and I’m forever grateful for everything they did for myself and my baby.

It’s unfortunate then, that I feel so let down by aspects of our care during our subsequent three days in the hospital. Whilst alone in recovery, I had no idea what had happened to my baby (they had been whisked away unresponsive at birth). After some time, I was visited by a student midwife, who had taken it upon herself to come to me to explain what had happened, and to reassure me that everything was being done to look after my baby. If it hadn’t been for her kindness and maturity, in my opinion, I’m in no doubt that I’d have waited those 6 long hours to meet my baby, having no idea what was going on.

Once my baby was brought to me late that night, we were left, I feel, to our own devices. My baby was regularly taken away to be prodded and poked, and since they were given formula in my absence, the occasional bottle was brought to me on that first night, but that was it. The astonishingly brief, I feel, visit from the lactation consultant the following day suggested work might be needed latching, but no guidance was given, no explanation about expressing or how to use the electronic pump that I’d seen being wheeled to other mums - nothing. Except the rare and in my opinion, very begrudgingly, offered bottle when I managed to get the attention of someone by pleading that I didn’t think my baby was feeding. I’d never done this (breastfeeding) before, so I had no idea what I should be looking for - but instinct told me that my unhappy, unsettled baby and the immense pain I was feeling when attempting to feed was not right.

Why couldn’t ‘the professionals’ see this and help us? Well, one did. An absolute angel of a lady, in my opinion, who cared for us before we were discharged (I just wish she’d been around more before). She instantly noticed a significant tongue-tie and despite the fierce insistence of the paediatrician that there wasn’t (and that we should go home and continue to breastfeed only), the midwife recommended we express and mix feed (some formula) to tackle our baby's significant weight loss. Incidentally, this was the same paediatrician that my spouse overheard complaining that their dinner plans had been interrupted by our baby's fragile state at birth. This ‘unofficial’ feeding plan given by the midwife was also supported by the midwife who visited us at home the following day - we needed to combine breastfeeding, expressing and formula in an effort to regain my baby's lost weight. 

I knew from my efforts in hospital and at home, that breastfeeding wasn’t working for us, and I couldn’t face ‘a battle’ with a lactation consultant, determined to push breastfeeding at all costs, so I didn’t attend the appointment and we worked through things on our own as best we could. Months down the line and a visit to another hospital confirmed what I’d known from Day 1 and what the midwife had felt, as our baby had a severe tongue-tie, to the extent that my baby was never physically able to breastfeed. Had the paediatrician acknowledged this on discharge, then I believe we could have rectified the issue much sooner and I would imagine, have had the opportunity to experience breastfeeding as it should be - not a painful, confusing, shameful and disappointing episode, and one, unfortunately, that I want to forget.

Feeding aside, apart from some very beneficial visits from the physio team, I feel we had little emotional or practical support offered during the stay (discharge aside). My observation was that on the whole, the midwives at Osborne Park Hospital are incredibly competent and empathetic people, but who are being pushed, in my opinion, beyond their limits and stretched to the point that they can’t be the midwives they want to/should be.

As a first time mum with no support network, I naively assumed that the midwives would be my advocates - they’d guide me through those first difficult days. They didn’t - I was very wrong, and still impacted by that today.