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

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Never got to a ward, I had to go straight to delivery room after nurses informed me there were no beds .... I said fine the corridor it is, they soon found a bed 😊

Absolutely hideous with one poor experience after another, I don’t think anyone wants to read all about them but safe to say it completely put me off, made me feel really low and very frightened, unsupported.
It wasn’t any better when I got home after 5 days having had a blood transfusion and feeling quite tired, I still didn’t get good support.
I hated every minute but set out with such high expectations for a natural water birth, which wasn’t supported due to lack of staff but I did succeed in breast feeding.

scary, exciting, totally life-changing.

My baby was the one that cried all night and kept everybody awake, second night on ward they took him away as I had no sleep night before, I didn't get much with out him beside me. I woke and went to find him, he was by the nurses/midwives desk fast asleep typically! as soon as I saw him I just burst into tears from all the emotions.

My experiences for my 3 pregnancies were different. the first I felt unsupported and felt pressure to breast fed even though i didn't not want to, I stuck to my guns. My second delivery was so much better had my midwife there to deliver baby, same midwife all through pregnancy. My 3rd delivery I was asked if I minded a male midwife did his first delivery with my baby, along with a senior midwife, I was happy with this and he did a fantastic job, my Daughters middle name was part his name.

Petrified all 3 times!! Never going through it again. I can’t describe how bad the pain is, people say you forget but I will never forget, but it was worth it. Epidural is amazing though, only had it with my third, wish I’d had it with my first two.
The staff were lovely and excellent facilities, however poor midwives rushed off their feet so I was left on my own a lot.

Loved it (twice). Caring midwives, lots of space to relax and great food (YES it was NHS)

I am a mummy of three, but some of the memories I have are below;

I remember eating tea and toast after having all three babies! All of the staff really looked after me very well - I remember having the BEST leek and potato soup!

After having my third child, I was very over whelmed with everything - there was a bit of a gap before having her but my first two were very close. I Felt worried about doing everything again, but was helped by a lovely midwife nurse on the ward.
I shared a room with 5 other ladies, who all kept to themselves.. I remember visiting time.. one the ladies had a curry around her bed with her relatives. It smelt good but I was ready for sleep :)

Not what you want to hear, but truly, truly awful. The hospital was being refurbished and so my emergency c section saw me being wheeled through a building site to a lift. My alarm on my bed didn't work, and my arm tissued, swelling to twice it's regular size, and I had to bang my hairbrush on the table to get help. When I expressed milk, the nurse said it wasn't enough and mixed it with formula to feed my son, who was in intensive care. I could go on, but it honestly still makes me upset, and I'm sure contributed to my post natal depression.

I have each of the 5 times I have been in having my children, had positive experiences with friendly staff. Although I have noticed through the years that the staff are fewer and busier than they were with less time to guide and advise the first time mums.
With my first I was guided with feeding and they gave encouragement to bath and dress baby and I stayed in for 3 nights, with my last one I was out within hours and so were first time mothers which really shocked me.

I was with my daughter whilst she gave birth to my beautiful granddaugher who is 1yrs old next week, The experience of being there was scary but amazing at the same time. The Midwife Clara at (Jessops in Sheffield) was fantastic she put my daughter at ease all the way through giving birth.

No issues in and out in a day felt impersonal but professional

My midwife sat with me and held my hand whilst I was waiting to find out what was going on (as I had some complications in pregnancy).
When I had a haemorrhage a few weeks later she talked me through my csection, knowing what would happen made my fears easier to deal with.
She waited until my baby was born to go home even though I knew her shift had finished. She hadn’t had food or a drink for many hours!
My baby was born six weeks early and when she came to see him she snuggled him rather than just holding him. I am so grateful and I will never forget what she did for me.
I bought her a massive bunch of flowers and a box of gifts and she seemed surprised!

The midwives for my first child were very dismissive and uncaring. I went from 1cm to 10cm within an hour as my child was back-to-back.

Same scenario with my second but the midwives were amazing.

The job they do is incredible and Iknow I wouldn't have the strength to do it.

I had a good experience up to, and including the birth of my son, but once over it seemed they left me well alone, despite it being my first time as a mum. I felt tired, scared, hungry (nobody checked to see if I had eaten on the first day, as I could not get out of bed due to having a c-section) and just wanted to go home.

My first was an emergency caesarean 11 days late. My second was a venthaus extraction 5 weeks early, both times the staff were very supportive.

I had a lovely midwife who worked very hard as the ward was really busy. My husband stayed with me, & was given a birds eye view as he was instructed to hold my leg as they were short staffed. I had a natural birth without any drugs, & my midwife came and found me on the ward the next day to congratulate me on how I had delivered my baby. This was a lovely, unexpected visit.

I had my first baby last August and I didn’t realise I was having contractions! My waters broke in the morning but no pain at all. I called the unit and they advised to come in by 6pm if I hadn’t had any contractions. At about 4.30pm I had a dull ache that I was timing (out of boredom mainly!) and they were every 2 minutes lasting about 45 seconds. So I called back and they told me to come in. By time we got there I could feel the pain getting a bit stronger. When we arrived I told DH to leave the bags in the car as we’d probably be sent home. The lovely midwife examined me and I was 7cm dilated!

By time she’d filled the birth pool I got in and I was ready to start pushing. My contractions were coming so fast the midwife was trying to record the heartbeats with her Doppler, run to write it down and rush back to get the next reading. Then the machine stopped working and she had to press the emergency buzzer to get another one brought in.

My son was born 2 and a half hours after we got to the hospital. And the bag I’d painstakingly researched and packed about 5 times was still in the boot! None of the grandparents knew we’d gone to the hospital either so they were most surprised to hear the baby had arrived!

The midwife team suggested that baby #2 might have to be a home birth as I might not make it a second time

i had a great experience whilst on the maternity ward. All the mums were lovely! However, i was a little jealous as i was the only one that had an emergency c section. All the other mums were walking around, picking their babies up and going home- where i could hardly move!

My midwife was fab, she helped me and to be honest it was fairly textbook. What shocked me was the other mums, there was one who asked the nurses to watch her baby so she could go out for a cigarette! When they came around asking if people wanted help latching she said no chance give her a bottle. The ward was noisy and it happened to be a heatwave that year, I am really glad my second made her appearance at home, just because no where is comfier than your own home.

In 1981 my mum gave birth to me. I was healthy in queen marys hospital. There were other women in that ward that night that couldn’t produce milk which my mother had a abundance of. She fed at least 3 proberly more that night. She always talks about it if it was a Thankyou to a bus driver but the story is incredible. I know these days it would be frowned on. Back then she was helping and the parents were grateful. I missed out though lol

We had an incredibly long traumatic labour with an eventful happy ending but it was the bounty lady who brought me back around mentally, I know there's a lot of hate for them but we personally found it so lovely, she made us smile and seeing our baby in the pictures then and there definitely helped me massively mentally and brought me back to reality

My youngest DD was born in a midwifery led unit, I thought the theory of 'second babies are normally quicker' was a myth ( I was wrong).

From start to finish the midwives were absolutley brilliant, I couldn't have asked for more supportive and helpful people before during and after the birth.
A huge difference to my first DD, who was born at a large RUH. I was just left in a corner on a ward for 12 hours, apart from someone asking me if I wanted lunch.

I had a terrible time with ds it was an emergency c section and was in labour for two days before they believed me and took me to the nearest hospital with a ‘SCBU’ as I was only 34 weeks pregnant. After the c section they whisked him away to get him the care he needed and he was then transported to my nearest hospital without them even telling me! One day after my operation my mum had to drive me there and even then I couldn’t find the right part of the hospital!
He was there for three months.
Then luckily when I had dd everything was much nicer. A planned c section, me and dh had dinner the night before in a lovely restaurant and we went in early the next day. I do remember being told off by the surgeon.. he was trying to stitch me up but I was giggling too much so he couldn’t do a straight line! I felt great the next day so we all went home and had a takeaway! Yay!

I felt really looked after - the midwifes were brilliant they gave me options they didn’t rush me into anything didn’t try to get me home quick .