"My treatment at King Edward"

I was assigned to King Edward for my birth of my first child. On the day, luckily I found parking which, usually for me, is a roll of the dice as it has limited parking. All the midwives that came and went during my 15 hour labour were super friendly and considerate. After fighting 15 hours of labour I gave in and got an epidural and was induced, not long after, my child was born.

Unfortunately I had a tear and lost a large amount of blood which took me away from my first bonding moments with my child as I was rushed to theatre. All the doctors I met were super informative and soothed me into trusting them and steered conversations to distract me from the trauma. I had to rest after the surgery, so once again I missed out on immediate bonding time.

When I woke up, I had no idea how to breastfeed or how often, and feel I was not seen very often by the midwives. I found the midwives that did see me were very nice, and I didn't have to wait too long to be seen, but I felt like I missed out on the million questions I had due to shortage of staff. I was discharged not even 24 hours of being admitted.

When I returned home I was seen by the midwife and seemingly encouraged to breastfeed immediately, not to worry about formula feeding. Unfortunately, my baby was underweight and needed to be taken back to hospital with jaundice. In my opinion, that visit did not need to happen if breastfeeding wasn't pushed so hard. I exhausted myself into a state with breastfeeding and my home visits with the midwife were very short even though I had a million concerns and freaking out about every little thing. I found I did not get the compassion I required, which did take a toll on my mental state. I understand there's a shortage of midwifes, but I felt my mental health took its toll from the lack of compassion.

Overall, King Edward breastfeeding centre have shown me sincerity and actually listened to my ordeal and have given me hope that next baby, I may have the chance to breastfeed with the appropriate support I deserve.