"Every midwife and doctor were supportive and caring"

I had my first child during Covid and the experience was pretty traumatic and left me very anxious about labour and birth throughout my second pregnancy. I transferred my care to the Northern Trust in the hopes of having a home birth and since then the standard of care I have received has been outstanding. Every single midwife, doctor and member of support staff I have been helped by has been fantastic and I have felt listened to and cared about throughout. 

I went up to Antrim EOD with some concerns (not for the first time) and a belief that I was in labour and was immediately listened to and admitted for monitoring. The staff went out of their way to reassure me that I was doing the right thing. 

When my waters broke early the next morning, the staff were so supportive and helpful and made sure I was comfortable and doing everything to start contractions naturally. They even ran me multiple baths to help manage my earlier pains. As soon as I said I needed stronger pain relief a call was made and I was moved to a labour suite and immediately offered gas and air and told to get on top of the pain before we did anything else. Barbara was absolutely outstanding in the delivery and made sure she had understood all my preferences but only spoke to me in between contractions when I could listen and explain my feelings. My community midwife Dana had put me onto a hypnobirthing course and Barbara was so supportive of my decision and ensured I was in control of the birth. When I requested diamorphine it was given as fast as possible which was the opposite to my previous experience where I was refused painkillers until it was too late to administer them. As a result of all of these things I was able to have a very calm birth and let my body and breathing do what it needed to deliver my daughter safely and quickly. 

Following the birth Barbara was so supportive with helping me with skin to skin and breastfeeding and even helped me to shower as I wasn’t steady enough to do it myself. 

When we went back to the maternity ward every midwife and doctor we spoke to were supportive and caring and made sure to explain exactly what was happening and why. 

I can’t express enough how thankful I am that I transferred my care and how grateful I am to everyone involved in my care for making it such a wonderful and positive experience.