Congratulations Nickinoo - lovely name !
Katts - I was on Nixon North at UCH in a private room for 3 nights, then I transferred to the Transitional Care unit, which was at the other end of Nixon when it became clear that I might be in there for a while until Charlotte finished her antibiotics. The care in the private room was pretty much non-existant - I had to chase them for my BP meds and monitoring and for Charlottes IV antibiotics. And all the staff gave conflicting advice about what to do with stiches, how to breastfeed and pretty much everything else. However, the care on the Transitional ward was brilliant - it's for mums and babies who have been in the ICU and has 2 neo natal nurses for 4 beds, who were so helpful and knowledgable, and always available for questions. It was pretty noisy in there, as all the beds were full, and there was 2 sets of twins in there, but the care I got more than made up for that. It's such a shame that that you only get that level of care if your baby has been sick, as the information we were getting was pertinant for all mums and babies. Unfortunately I was still reliant on the midwives on the wards for my own care, which was still appalling - I never once got my meds on time, and found out that this was because it was on my chart that I was to have them at 10am, and they didn't do a drug round at 10am, so they just didn't give them to me . I couldn't believe it!!!!
Have decided that there is far too much emphasis over here on the birth process and your choices, and in my experience (and that of a lot of the people I know who have had babies recently) a lot of that goes out the window when things go wrong and you have to get the baby out. I think it would be far more beneficial to focus on post natal issues so that mums are better equiped when they take their bundles of joy home, after all, the birth is only 24 or so hours, and the baby is going to come out somehow, but the post natal period lasts for a lot longer and has the potential to have a far bigger impact on both mother and baby. [Climbs down off soapbox].
{{{HUGS}}} to you JM - not long to go now.
RZ must have had her baby by now - hope all is ok.