"C section birth experience"

Had it not been for one awful experience, the birth of our second baby at Fiona Stanley would have been near perfect.

The team in the theatre were excellent, our anaesthesiologist, Ash, was a standout - she was so calming in an environment I was finding extremely confronting and stressful. She stayed next to me the whole time, constantly checking how I was feeling, she felt a bit like my eye in the sky throughout the experience.

Each and every midwife was amazing. Maddie, Tayla and the night nurses on both nights were excellent however I cant remember their names. Our midwife on our discharge day was also amazing. I felt in very good hands with the entire midwife team.

The baby doctor was also a standout, a very calming and welcome presence. The OB was also great, as was our physio.

Unfortunately we had an awful experience with the Mothercraft Nurse. They struggled to get a reading on our baby's hearing, blaming them as the problem, sighing and complaining the whole time. They complained about running late to another appointment of theirs because it was taking too long.

The time that it was taking and the lack of communication between the nurse and us was making us feel as though something was wrong. They then wrapped our baby in a swaddle and two blankets to try and calm them down and our baby turned a purple colour. The nurse put our baby in the bassinet and began wheeling them out of our room to go and get help, saying our baby is safe with them as they began exiting -the nurse did not ask for our consent, nor for one of us to come with them.

Thankfully our midwife was nearby and intercepted the nurse, bringing our baby back in to the room to check them. She couldn’t find anything wrong with him, despite the nurse repeatedly saying they were concerned about this baby and that something was wrong. I felt the nurse created a chaotic environment from the moment she stepped in to our room.

Shortly after the baby doctor conducted a full assessment on our baby, reassuring us they were completely fine and that we were okay to go home.

The experience with the Mothercraft Nurse was unnecessarily stressful and highly emotional. I believe we should never have been made to feel as though there was something critically wrong with our 2 day old baby without a specialist being present, nor should our baby have been wheeled out of our room away from us without our consent.

Our visiting midwives Janet and Simone were wonderful, very calm, thorough and knowledgeable.