So, farewell to the Queens Mum

[glasjam]

Had my daughter there over 2 years ago - felt like a place waiting to close down then - end of an era and all that. Was quite perturbed to read this article here - sounds like it is going to be tough if you have a sick baby at the Southern General for the next 5 years. I am fortunate enough to have not had to deal with an ill baby but it seems awfully hard to have to watch your baby on a video link and send your expressed milk in remotely. Is that usual, not being able to stay with your poorly baby? I'm certainly glad that I was able to avail myself of a maternity unit that was slap bang next to a fantastic hospital like Yorkhill.
(Won't miss the toilet and shower facilites though - or the high-walled rooms with the teeny narrow windows that were so high up you couldn't see out them!)

I had a great time at the QMs with fantastic Breast feeding support from the sainted Rosemary.

I also had to go back in fro a week about 2 weeks post natal with an infection (not hopsital related) and again they were fantastic.

My first missed miscarriage was dealt with at the Queens Mum and was looked after very well. My second missed miscarriage was dealt with at the Southern and was handeled abominably . It started as an early ultrasound, understandable, given my earlier MMC and then they had me coming back for 3 successive weeks, even though the sonographer had identified at the first one that it wasn't viable - it ended up with her being surprised that "I kept coming back" and I had to explain to her I was being told to do so . I can understand the first request to come back - just to confirm I hadn't got my dates worng, but when they wanted me to come back for a 5th time, "just to see" - despite me having had blood tests at the GP to confirm that my growth hormones weren't increading as expected, I blew up. They even then tried to say they need to do blood tests themsleves. Brings back bad memories.

Glad to hear you had some good bf support there pretty bird, I had to beg for two whole days for the bf counsellor to come and see me before she did, I had a big boy who screamed for 2 day solid and was starving. It was horrible. I did keep going for another 9 weeks though which I suppose was better than nothing.

I had both dd at QM within the last 4 years, and did part of my training there so have some loyalty to it.While I would agree that the place was tired and sometimes the cleaners spent more time talking than cleaning, I was not expecting a Hilton experience. The north wing was being used to full capacity over the last year, to save money of course with cs absorbed into this ward, when in the past they would, along with any special need mothers/ babies ( I lost a huge amount of blood) being accommodated into South Wing. My last stay in Oct 09, the m/w never stopped working, not even at 5.30 am,as this was the only time I could grab one for help bf. I have never had any poor nursing care but was affected by the lack of their time. There is one nursing assistant in the North wing who looks like and is a complete bitch.
My dd 1 was admitted to Neonates at 4 days and I was allowed to remain in Qm for 10 days until I got her back. I would have hated to be in the Suffering, sorry Southern if that was to happen.
Where anyone will park at the SGH is a mystery.
I will miss it.