W Channel would love to hear your stories/experiences about being on the maternity ward

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Childbirth can be an incredible time, filled with a host of different emotions for all involved, including the midwives who help many get through it all. Each person’s experience on the maternity ward is unique to them, which is why to celebrate the launch of the second series Emma Willis: Delivering Babies, airing Mondays at 10pm, W Channel would love to hear your heartwarming midwife stories from your experience being on the maternity ward.

You can watch the trailer at the top of this thread. App users please watch the video here

Here’s what W Channel has to say about Emma Willis: Delivering Babies: “Last year television presenter and mother of three, Emma Willis, spent 10 weeks working on the frontline of a busy maternity unit. Now, in a brand new eight-part documentary series for W, she’s been given the chance to return to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex to complete her training.

Over the course of 16 weeks she will immerse herself in the role, supporting the hospital’s charismatic midwife team. From elective caesarean sections to natural births, complicated theatre procedures to water births Emma will share the pressures, the fears and the joys of bringing new life into the world.

Don’t miss the return of the award-winning series Emma Willis: Delivering Babies, new and exclusive to W - Sky 109 | Virgin 125 | BT 311 | TalkTalk 31”

Perhaps you have a funny story about your partner’s reaction to you giving birth? Or perhaps you are the partner and have a story to share about being on the maternity ward, watching your loved one give birth? Or maybe your midwife did something that really put you at ease or had you uncontrollably laughing?

Share your stories on the thread below and everyone who does will be entered into a prize draw where one Mumsnet user will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

Diagnosed with pre eclampsia I was in & out of the maternity ward over the course of 3 weeks before induction.
I was not shown where anything was. I found the loo ok. That was it though.
Was pretty much monitored and confined to the bed for long periods.
I didn’t eat for days at a time as I was forgotten about in the side room.
Induction decision was made & then performed.
Labouring I couldn’t find any one except for a very kind physio who helped me back to the room & eventually tracked down a midwife.
I was ready to go so was taken down some corridors to another room.
Turns out baby was undiagnosed breach found when I was 9cm and baby was distressed.
So I had a general anaesthetic and a c section.
The vague recollections of that day are interspersed by the midwife.
She was professional, commanding, very very reassuring made me feel completely safe and I knew I was in safe hands despite the shitty situation.
I just knew that she knew what she was doing as she was confident and in control.
Days later she sought me out. She’s brought my notes and went through them with me. She went through the events and answered all of my questions.
I wish I could meet her again.
I wish that I could tell her how much her presence eased my terror.
I wish i could tell her what a superb job she did and that she does.
I wish I could say thank you properly from the bottom of my heart.
My experience over all was bad, she coloured it with such professionalism it more than made up for the poor experience.

There were supportive midwifes but my strongest memories are of the couple of mean midwives or postnatal ward nurses who were mean to me. They got cross that my baby wasn't feeding or when I asked for water two hours after my csection but I couldn't get out of bed to get it myself.

I had a horrendous birth with my first but my lovely community midwife stayed on shift with me till he was born. She made me feel cared for and safe in a frightening situation and I’ll always remember her kindness

I found my experience of being on a maternity ward a positive one. I was induced and then my little one had an infection so I ended up staying for 8 nights. I found all the midwives and other staff to be Friendly and helpful. I hadn’t even planned on spending one night in hospital as I hoped to give birth at a local birth Center and go home afterwards I long stay is something I had dreaded. The staff really made my stay a Positive one and will be choosing to go back for my second birth

We had a traumatic first birth and chose to practice hypnobirthing for the second. We had a fabulous midwife, arranged in advance, who respected our birth plan and we had the most peaceful birth.

To be honest, finding a lovely story about the midwives is harder than finding a horror story! I guess this is something sort of funny: when we had our first baby I had an unexpected Caesarean and my husband was not ready for taking care of the baby while I was bedbound. The first nappy filled him with dread and he asked the midwife to help him. She quipped back at him "watch carefully as I'm only gonna do this once".

I had a great midwife who stayed with me long after her shift has ended.

I noticed in the middle of the night that my baby didn't appear to have eyelashes or eyebrows. I went in to a blind panic and pressed the emergency buzzer. I was exhausted after 3 nights of no sleep and off my face on morphine. The nurses came rushing in and once they realised what I was so worried about, they were lovely reassuring and told me that baby's usually don't. They didn't once make me feel like a wally. It was only days later once I was at home I realized what an idiot I'd been.

i think the best midwives just have something.its like this aura around them that you think/know these woman do this job and its made for them and them it.
they bring calm when its needed.they slap you silly(not really) when you need it.but are all the way through calm and adaptable to each new mum that comes to them.they are in sink.breathe by breathe til the end.

My midwives were incredible!! I was in hospital for over 24hrs before baby was born so had 4 different midwives and they were all amazing. Caring, supportive, attentive, and had me and my baby as their focus.

I had to stay in overnight due to stitches and the night midwives were brilliant with helping me to breastfeed. The hand expressed for me, and were there as soon as i pushed the button.

The hospital i gave birth in allowed partners to stay overnight which is just how i think it should be. There were 6 beds in my ward and the atmosphere was lovely, with everyone focused on their babies.

I literally can not fault any of the staff who helped me.

I think Emma Willis' series is great. The women taking part have consented, and i felt like i learnt so much about childbirth watching it.

All my midwives have been lovely. I naively thought that the midwife that first visited me would be the one that helped me give birth but once I realised that wasn't going to happen I found the various midwives I came into contact with to all be supportive and positive and generally reassuring.

My antenatal midwives were absolutely lovely and I got to know them well due to regular monitoring for reduced movements. They were so reassuring and upbeat, even when it was 40 degrees in there!

Just a shame about the maternity unit midwives, who tutted and rolled their eyes when I spilt my medication, and left my baby lying in her own poo all night as it was ‘better not to wake her’ 😑

My labour was looong but very relaxed. The midwives gave us plenty of space until they were needed but I also knew they were right there just incase. The funny reaction was from me squealing 'ooooh it's a baby, we've got a baby'

I met my midwife at home, I was 32w pregnant. I was in the RAF when I had our children, and Jackie was the first Community Midwife I’d met. She was very friendly, soon had me laughing and as we went through the details, I told her this baby was from IVF, following several losses, including this baby’s twin.

Jackie made me feel very much the centre of this process, as well as my baby. As we spoke, she told me she would be on call on Christmas Day, and we chatted about this. I asked her if she thought she would get called out, and she said she wasn’t sure, babies decide everything for themselves. With a final laugh at my birth plan ‘ALL THE DRUGS NOW PLEASE’ (yep, pain wimp, unashamed).

The next day was Christmas Eve. I fell asleep on the sofa around 1pm and woke up feeling unwell, like I had the flu. My feet looked swollen, as did my hands, and face. I’d had a killer headache for the last 2 weeks and it was especially bad that evening.

Now, because of the horrific journey I’d had to this point, I was ridiculously superstitious, and refused to read anything about my pregnancy, unless I had already got to that exact point myself. This meant I never read ahead. I had no clue about pre-eclampsia.

I felt so unwell we made our way to the local maternity ward. It soon became clear I had horrific high blood pressure, and blood tests showed things not going brilliantly. After a few hours things calmed down, and I was allowed home for Christmas Day.

And guess who got called out to come and check on me?!

I was in and out of hospital for the next couple of weeks, with Jackie visiting if I was at home.

After my little 4lb 11oz scrap was born (IUGR from the pre eclampsia) Jackie and I stayed in touch, and became good friends. Jackie later told me that she had had several failed IVFs, which made her even more of an amazing person - to be so caring, listening to all the glorious pregnancy whinges, knowing it was out of reach for her.

We moved home when Alice was 6 months (Jackie looked after her while we did the move). 2 weeks after we moved I found out I was pregnant again - naturally. When Florence was 10 days old,Jackie came to visit. Alice chose her visit to take her first steps.

She made a very frightening time bearable, and I will always remember that.

Thanks, Jackie 😘😘😘

By the time my baby was born I had already had 8 midwives in the hospital. Only 1 of them listened to me, and actually helped me through it. Unfortunately I had a 2 days stay after baby arrived and they didn't get any better. There were so many who clearly had lost the passion and did not care anymore. My time in hospital is really hard to look back on for many reasons, but the staff really let me and my baby down.

The midwives wasn't interested and both times I was left to start pushing go into labour on my own I labour fast and was dismissed both times, I'm now pregnant again so maybe 3rd time lucky for me

We had a few midwives by the time dd was born as I was in hospital for 4 days in the end waiting for my baby to arrive.

I loved my midwives and got many of them twice etc as I was in so long. I ended up with two with me when Dd was born as it was actually a surprise what we were having and although it was the midwife A's end of shift she just had to find out as they don't get many surprises anymore. I always thought that was really sweet and it felt great to be able to have a shift end on a high for her. It was a emergency C-section I should add but not an actual emergency just baby was way to comfortable even though 15 days late.

Which was probably because I also had the most waters one of the midwife had ever seen. Honest I was giving Niagara falls a run for it's money. So probably why Dd was happy to keep swimming around 15days past her supposed entry date.

I had a lovely punk midwife, same advanced age as me. She told me she was doing blanket stich down there, just as we learnt at school!

The one clear memory I have is the lovely midwife on the postnatal ward - after a horrendous night trying to breastfeed and memories of the nightmare that followed this with my previous DC, I gingerly approached the desk to ask if they had any formula. I must have been in a bit of a state, apologising for asking etc, because the lovely lady replied: "as long as you feed your baby, I don't mind how you do it!" I know this will probably cause outrage, in that I should have been offered support etc etc, but believe me, I had all the support first time around and I couldn't face it again. That this one midwife recognised this is something I am eternally grateful for.

My son was seriously ill the week before I went into labour with his sister. Several times I wasn't sure he was going to make it.
I had had no sleep for a week and went into labour by his hospital bed. I was left totally on my own in an empty day ward then a man who told me he was a midwife examined me and then left me again. The contractions came hard and fast and I was totally on my own and I rang and rang the buzzer but no one came. Finally someone eventually came and then said I needed a cesarean but there were no theatres free. It was an awful awful time and I now have severe birth trauma.

On a "funnier" note when DS was born and I was spending my first night with him the girl in the bed next to mine had her boyfriend visit and he hid when it was the end of visiting time and they had a ferocious argument and then from the sound of things a fairly steamy reconciliation. I rang the buzzer a lot of times but no midwives ever came. Happy memories

I've given birth twice in that same hospital the show is filmed in. Midwives were good but obviously super stretched and both time they didn't believe that I was at pushing stage! Great aftercare though and they obviously care about what they do!

The community midwives were lovely. The hospital ones - who knows, they totally ignored me

Of all the midwives who looked after me across three pregnancies and a miscarriage, ante-natal, in labour, and post-natal, only two were unpleasant. The others were all kind, caring, supportive and dedicated.

I'll not forget the midwife who saved my dc's life by cutting the cord while dc was still inside me - dc's head was out, but the cord was wound tightly round their neck.

Or the midwife who, coming off duty in the labour ward, popped in to say hello: she'd noticed my name on the board, had remembered me from the previous week's AN clinic, and wondered why I was in the labour ward when I wasn't due for a couple of months.

Or the midwife who introduced me to co-sleeping by tucking dc1 into bed with me on the ward.

Or the midwife who refused to leave me and go off-shift until my dc was born.

Or the midwife who, knowing that I had been severely traumatised by the way I had been stitched up after a previous birth, took it slowly and patiently, explaining everything to me, telling me exactly whether I was feeling her hand or the stitch, and when she was putting the needle in, every single step.

Or the midwife who explained my miscarriage to me, reassured and supported me.

Sorry I don't have any funny stories for you

My situation the first time was begind awful due to very sad circumstances but the midwives were so kind. They remembered me when I was in hospital with DD3 which was lovely. Made me well up to know that they remembered DD1 too (who very sadly died shortly after DD1 and 2 were born).