"Birthing experience"

I went through my pregnancy at KEMH FBC and I was assigned a midwife for continuity of care throughout my pregnancy/delivery.

The midwife assigned to me was booked for weeks of annual leave starting around my due date time so it was unlikely they would be there for birth or follow up appointment after baby was born. (This leave was booked at the start of my pregnancy).

I enjoyed the process of having 1 midwife throughout the entire pregnancy and felt like the level of care was pretty great. The home appointments were amazing too as I found parking is extremely difficult at KEMH.

I only met 1 other midwife for about 10 minutes during my pregnancy as they did a quick check on Bub for me after I received an iron infusion but that was it.

When I went into labour 3 days past my due date my original midwife was now on annual leave and I had never met the midwife that was now assigned to be at my birth before.

I was transferred to the hospital to be induced as my waters broke and I was GBS positive. The labour/delivery experience wasn’t the best due to a prolonged second stage and needing a vacuum assisted delivery.

Our baby was then born unresponsive due to meconium aspiration and I wasn’t even able to hold them as they were rushed to the NICU.

This is where the birth became traumatic. I also had a haemorrhage so that was worked on while Bub and my partner went off to the NICU.

After everything had settled down and it was just myself and the midwife left in the room. I was completely exhausted and traumatised after the labour and delivery and hadn’t even seen my baby properly yet. I felt the midwife was so cold and was essentially a complete stranger to me. I remember I was laying there covered in after birth and meconium (from the few seconds Bub was on my chest) and the midwife said I needed to express colostrum. I said no problem (I already had a freezer full at home so was a pro at this by now). I did however ask if I could please wipe my chest clean as I was so dirty. They said no and that’s it’s good microbiome for the baby. In hind site, I feel this was such a cold and horrible answer from them. Getting a wash cloth for me to help me during my recovery to feel a bit cleaner after such a traumatic event I felt was a completely reasonable request and I believe wouldn’t have affected the quality of my colostrum at all.

I remember laying there without my baby and partner in the birthing suite for hours and the midwife was just typing away at the computer and I wasn’t offered any help from them to shower or even just some comforting words to let me know how my baby was okay etc

It was about 3 hours before the midwife finally helped me to shower after me asking when I could shower and go see my baby. I had forgotten to pack soap as well so had a shower with only water. After giving birth and haemorrhaging that was also a horrible experience for me as I just wanted to freshen up as I felt so yuck.

I felt so vulnerable and alone throughout all of that and a bit of caring and compassion from the midwife would have gone a long long way.

I guess I got unlucky that the midwife assigned to me throughout my pregnancy who I had formed a bond with wasn’t available for the birth and it became luck of the draw who I got after that.

That midwife was then our midwife for the home visits where they were a bit nicer but I still felt no connection to them.

I will not be returning to the FBC for my second pregnancy,

The positives from my birth story is that my baby was looked after extremely well in the NICU and they made a full recovery, so that’s the most important thing.