"Care before and after having my baby"

Towards the start of the year, I gave birth to my child at Broome Health Campus.

The professionalism from all the staff I saw was excellent. I had a caesarean section, and the entire day of delivery I received a high level of care.

The hospital also offers a midwife group which I had been attending, that provides support through the pregnancy all the way through to after the birth. I really need to stress the continuation of this service, and suggest expanding it further as it is such a great service.

I was a private patient at a public hospital, and was put in the hospital’s one single-bed room for this unit. The room was closer to the general ward, which is opposite the maternity ward. I felt that due to this, there wasn’t as much security, particularly at night, due to the distance from the maternity ward. This made it more difficult to communicate with maternity staff when I needed them.

I had the single-bed room for 2 nights, before being moved to a two-bed room, as someone needed it more. I completely understand this, being that there is only one single-bed room for this ward; however I did have some feedback about my stay in the two-bed room.

Firstly, there was not really much room for a support person (for example, the father of the child) in the room to stay with you while you recovered. This made it a little cramped for everyone that needed to be in the room.

Secondly, the shower chair in the bathroom wasn’t a proper shower chair, but rather a regular vinyl chair. This made it very difficult to manoeuvre in the shower as the water on the vinyl caused me to get stuck. This was exacerbated by the fact that I was recovering from a C-section. I also had to use the same towel for 3 days in a row.

As a private patient, I was also provided with a bath mat. While this was good, upon moving to the two-person room, I had to keep taking the bath mat in an out of the bathroom as I needed it, as it was a shared room and public patients aren’t given one.

Finally, I noticed that the toilet bowl was leaking from the base, and the shower water leaked out of the bathroom, into the main room.

My stay at Broome Health Campus was mostly a good experience, with the highlight definitely being the staff care. However, there are some minor things that brought down an otherwise good experience, and I hope that this feedback can be used to improve your service.