"My 1st birthing experience"

Had a great labour and birthing experience at Rockingham Hospital - when it came to my discharge was a different story. I was discharged on the third day and it felt very rushed - we had a midwife that was only helping with discharges that day and it felt as if they were trying to just hurry it up so they could get us out of their hair and when I voiced my concerns about my babies bellybutton and the colour of their skin looking a bit jaundice I recall I was just ignored. We were also not told or shown when we should wash the baby and as new time parents we didn’t know anything  and when you look at information online it said to wait a week before their first bath. 

We came back for the 5 day post op check - the midwife was great listened to all my concerns and addressed each one with swabbing my child's bellybutton and doing a jaundice blood test. We then saw the doctor regarding my child's bellybutton and they said nothing about bathing them to only clean around the bellybutton while waiting for the swaps and bloods to come back, I also voiced my concerns about my child's eye as it had discharged and become crusty - I wash told to just use my breastmilk and wipe once to help this and was sent home again. 

A few days later we came back in for results and to have my child's armpits checked as these were red raw and oozing. A swap was done on their arm pit and sent off - we where then asked had we washed the baby to which we said no as we had no information on this or been shown as first time parents - we where then shown how to bath and wash our child. After this the test results from the bellybutton came back as showing staph and they were admitted into nicu. 

The next day we were still waiting for results on armpit and my concerns regarding my child's eye were ignored again as it was still oozing and going crusty. 

The following day my concerns about their eye where finally heard and they did a swab on it (luckily resulting in nothing in the end) 

The next day all results had come back and my child was on the up and up. 

The following day we had our second bath and being discharged after a very good look over from the doctor and nurses and being shown how to do the last of the treatment at home. 

As a first time parent Rockingham Hospital Nursery had to fight for me to be able to stay with my baby and find a bed for me on the ward as they don't have their own beds for parents. This was on a day by day basis and added extra stress on not knowing whether or not i would be able to stay here which impacted being able to breast feed my child. 

I was asked to leave the ward one morning with no notice I had to pack my things and move them into the nursery that made me feel so rushed and upset knowing I wouldn’t be able to be with my child. (The nursery did try very hard to find me a room but wasn’t able to) I also live a two hour trip from the hospital so it wasn't logical to be able to breastfeed at night so my child had to be given a bottle which we didn't want to do but had no choice. 

I want to finish this off with saying a huge thank you to two people in particular that listened to all my concerns and acted on them straight away when they heard them and that is Silvia and Ellie who where with my child in the nursery almost everyday we where there. I appreciate you both so much for listening, helping, showing and teaching me all the different things as a new time mum.