Gold Coast Hospital Births

[michelle21]

Just wondering for thoses ladies that had bubs at Gold Coast Hospital...
Which midwife did you have for labour?
and...
was she (or he) a good midwife for you personally or not so good?

They all do things differently throughout labour eg- some midwives tell you when to push, others say push when you feel the erge, some support you in a reassuring way others are a bit more firm etc
Just after your experiences :)

[JorBai]

Hi Michelle!

I had Bailey at the Gold Coast hospital and it was a reasonably good experience except for a few midwifes.

When I was induced a Midwife called Penny was in the room - lovely lady! Very funny and also calming. She returned the following night and was in the room when Bailey was delivered holding my hand while DH held the other!

Kaylene was the midwife there for a mojority of the labour, she too was fantastic!

Fiona was the midwife there for delivery and pushing! Very nice lady but was pregnant herself so couldnt help me much but let DH do alot of the work which was actually really nice!

The overnight midwife on the labour ward dont know her name but she was a blonde older lady was a b**ch. She told me to deal with the pain because I got myself into it. She was awful.

On the maternity ward the midwifes were fantastic during the day but i found the nighttime staff not so good. Hence the reason I left on early discharge program.

The midwifes that visit at home when you leave on ED program are wonderful!

Hope this helps, PM if you have anymore questions!

You live quite close to me, would love to catch up for a coffee someday ( or a hot choc dont drink coffee :laughing: )

Leanne

[SassyDiva]

When I was in labour with Jordan I had Penny as my midwife too (i sure her surname is Wallace) and she absolutly rocks :thumbsup: she was with me thru the 10 hours, rubbing my back, helping me in and out of the shower, then when it all ended up being an emergancy C-Section, even though her shift ended an hour ago - she came into Theater with me too. She said she just couldn't go home not knowing if my lil man was brought into the world safley.. She also came up to the ward the following day to check on us in her own time - just to have a chat. I love her and will never forget her. If only all midwives were like her....

Like Leanne has said, u get some great ones and some not so great - but all in all, my experience was good. I also did the EDP and the midwives that come out to my home were great too - they were even able to remove my stiches at home saving me a trip to the doctors

[JorBai]

Wow Mel! Thats amazing! Yep Wallace sounds familiar to me too! She was awesome! I agree...If only they were all like Penny!

[Littletreasures]

i had my DS at Gold coast and had a midwife called jenny she was a nice lady gave me support although she did tell me not push cause my waters hadent broke but i needed to push so for a moment there she was a ***** but only for that reason.

[suemp]

both me and my friend had kerry . absolutely lovely lady.
my b/friend had a middie dont know her name but apparantly as she was pushing the middie started singing that song i am women hear me roar :laughing:
as for the middies on the ward. did not like an older night staff, or a day staff older lady with long hair. the young ones were nice except for one who got up me for not being able to b/f

[~mia&ryan~]

I had Maree and Cathy as my midwives when I had Mia. They were both great, but Maree was awesome. She was so good and so supportive. Cathy made me vegemite on toast and a cup of tea cos I was starving after I delivered Mia.:yelclap: Maree came and visted me in the ward when she was working, she was great. A couple of midwives on the ward sucked but most were great, my fave was Olivia she was awesome.:smiliedance: All in all a great experience.

[michelle21]

Sounds like there are some really lovely midwives! Penny sounds great :) Was having a laugh when I read some of your posts about what they were doing during labour!! I think I deffinately got the raw end of the stick (is that they saying?!) in regards to a labour midwife after reading your posts...oh well not complaining... got my beautiful little man out of it didnt I :yelclap:

I really wanted to do the EDP too but they said I lived just past the cut off... literlly missed out by a few streets! :( Ended up there for 4 nights, was sooo ready to go home.

Baileys Mummy- would love to meet up sometime for a "coffee" or something (I dont drink coffee either! :D ) I havent met anyone of bub hub yet.
Think I know the blonde older midwife that works at night that you mentioned!! Bub was having a bad night one night so this midwife put the rail up on my bed and told me to feed bub in bed and that way I could get some sleep and bub would fall asleep happy next to me.
Well we had hardley both drifted off b4 the older blonde midwife came in really cranky, switched on the big bright light and started saying why is he in your bed, you cant have him in there thats so dangerous etc etc. Wouldnt even let me get a word in to tell her I was just doing wht I had been told to do.
She picked bub up (not gently) and woke him up trying to put him back into the crib, he was startled, started screaming so I picked him up and tried to comfort him for a few mins while she stood there staring, then she said... hes hungry....feed him and walked out! (grrr so not happy!)

Had a really lovely midwife when I got induced though, cant remember her name but she had a NZ accent. She was so nice, reassuring and friendly! Wish she could have been there while I was in Labour!

[Mahjong]

Michelle, that is disgusting what that Blonde nurse did and I think I know who you are talking about. I called the buzzer one night as Wyatt wouldn't settled, and she stomped in saying "What do you want?" :eek:

Needless to say, I left after two days, I had a gutful. The night staff were so much different that the day staff. I had one nurse on during the day that was AWESOME, she had an Irish accent.

I had two midwives during my labour, one was Janelle, she was awesome :thumbsup: The other, dont know her name, but I wanted to punch her lights out!! :mad:

[Little Gorilla]

I don't like gold coast hospital at all.

I went into the hospital to have bub, they didn't examine me thoroughly enough and just left me in the delivery room "hanging" - finally when I nearly keeled over from my first huge contraction (basically was ready to push bub out) my midwife was then in a rush and a bit shocked I was so far along. I had Maria, she was a lovely lady - my IMO no where near prepared enough for my birth.

My DP said she looked quite concerned during the whole brith as it happened so quick and they were totally unprepared for it.

After reading through peoples stories on bub hub from when they had their bub, I've relised how many things were done incorrectly (or at all) at my birth.

Anyway given the above bad experience I had, we now have private insurance so no one in my family has to step back into that hell hole.

ps - the nurses I had were all ****, they kept telling me different things re breast feeding and I was made to feel stupid and like I was a bother.

[Mahjong]

Georgia, sounds EXACTLY like my experience with the maternity ward upstairs. Hence why I was so stressed with the breastfeeding :thumbsdown:

The *****y midwive I had told me that I wasn't ready to push Wyatt out and stop being silly, until she examined me and saw Wyatt crowning :rolleyes: Then she said "Oh, you need to push", DUH, Captain Obvious :eek:

[michelle21]

BubbaGanoush – That sounds EXACTLY like my labour experience. I was a bit upset about it at first but then thought I was over reacting and its hard not to be anything but happy when they give you your baby! But after reading about other peoples labour experiences I too have realized so many things weren’t right during my labour.

I wont go into detail caus we’d be here all day but basically I was induced at night (that was fine, the lady and the doctor were so nice to me, really good) then I started getting pains about 6am – all of a sudden and so strong and close! Midwives didn’t believe I was in labour, made me take a sleeping tablet to get more sleep (which I tried to refuse but they insisted) Pains got worse, still didn’t listen to me. Waters broke in bed at 6:15 I rang my DP on my mob and told him to come now. Midwives said ok we’ll take you to labour room now.
Contractions intensified just after waters broke, they made me walk all the way to Maternity room (longest walk of my life!) I literally would take about 6 steps – contraction for about 20 secs etc. The midwife even looked a bit cranky I took so long and she had to stand there and hold the lift for me! no support, kind words or encouragement.
It was worse from then on… doctor checked me, she said ok were going to break your waters now… Ahh they have already broken, she just smiled so I repeated myself and said do you think I just wet myself or something, she said just relax as she tried to ‘break my waters’ after a bit (and a lot of pain) she said oh were having trouble breaking your waters (der! :banghead: ) Ill see how you go and check you again in a bit (never saw her again)
I was in the shower with DP, contractions were so bad at this point I was sitting on ball doubled over and holding onto rail in shower… midwife came in and I said I really need something for the pain now and she told me that it was only early and I would still have hours to go (was actully nearly 10cm dialated at this stage but she hadnt bothered to check) and its best to wait until its really bad and you really need it. (it was so hard to hear that because I was in sooo much pain and honestly didn’t see how it could get anyworse. Next time she came in I asked her again this time she said oh ok 5 more mins and left again. Well about 10 mins later It was so bad I pressed the emergency button in the shower, when she came back I couldn’t even speak and my DP said quite firmly She needs something NOW! Midwife rolled her eyes and said ok come and hop on the bed! Somehow made it to the bed, contractions were literally one on top of each other by this stage.
She was trying to check me but was having trouble as there was basically no break between contractions, when she finally managed to check she said Oh I can see baby’s head, you need to push! (Not once had they even told me how dialated I was or really properly checked me)
My DP looking quite worried said can you give her something! Midwife actually laughed and said oh no way too late for that now… baby will be here before we could get anything. (have read about ppl getting needles just before there baby is born!) She must have seen the look on my face because she handed me the gas and said breathe on this for a minute. Then she actully stood there hands on hips and after a few mins she said right are you going to keep sucking on that or put it away and actually have this baby!
Other things she said during labour…. I was pushing my heart out and she told me to PUSH! Then she said no stop….. you let me know when your actually ready to push properly and not be half hearted. I was so emotional at this stage I started to cry and she said I know it hurts but crying about it wont make it any better, and I said…no I just feel like im not doing it good enough… My DP gave the midwife the worst look and so no babe your doing great, don’t worry.
Anyway bub was born at 8:58 (less then 3 hours after I started feeling pain – so strong and full on) I really want pics of him straightaway so I told DP to get the camera….the midwife yelled at him to stop! And said what are you getting, he didn’t know what to do almost froze with his hand on the camera, when she saw what it was she said oh ok that’s fine I though you were getting you phone and went into this big speech about how this was our time and we didn’t need to go calling ppl and telling them just yet we would have plenty of time for that!
When my parents finally found out and came to the hosp I was BF him in bed and another lovely midwife came in and said do you know your family are waiting outside and b4 I could say anything midwife said yeh and they can stay out there and wait a lttle longer. Then she turned to me and said you don’t need any distractions right now they can come in later (and I thought isn’t that my decision to make?) Anyway they eventully came in and were there for about 15 mins until she said ok I think shes had enough now you can come back later!! So they all left (had driven all the way from Brisbane to see me)
Then Midwife said ok enough laying about now up you hop, go and have a shower, I was so weak, several times I nearly fell in the shower!
I really don’t think she was trying to be harsh or mean, she was just very firm and straight to the point
Anyway that’s some of my labour experience….sorry its so long
It hasn’t put me off going back there but I would ask for someone else if I got her again. I think they definitely took advantage of the fact I am young and it was a first time labour and I didn’t really know what was supposed to happen. I will definitely be more informed and not such a pushover next time and I will make sure they give me something for the pain if I need it.
But all in all I am happy I have a beautiful, happy, healthy baby and thats the main thing! :D

[Kristy1979]

Reading all these post sure does bring back memories for me also.
There was some really bad Middy's on the first time i was there with ds1 ,
I used to dread them coming in and turning on the f****** flood lights at all hours and blinding me and waking up bubs.
I think i too feel victim as i was only young and not knowing everything when i went into labour.
I should have waited longer i think with ds1 but they insisted that i was induced and had my waters broken. You should have seen the look on my face when i was in the labour ward on the bed and this little punk doctor came in to break my waters, he looked about 17 with an eyebrow ring :eek: and i thought your not looking up there mate your to young....
And after all that nothing happened and i ended up with a CS ...

But i agree that most of the day staff were really nice and helpful, there was just a few shockers on at night that made me feel like i was bothering them and that i wasnt trying to do things right.

Its not so easy learning all those new mum things the first time round, especially if you are exhausted, we're not all experienced in the ways of taking care of newborns and keeping them content and soundly sleeping.
I congratulate every mother , because god knows we'd sacrafice anything to do whats best for our babies. AND WE ALL TRY TO DO A FABULOUS JOB !!!

[COLOR="purple"]Thank you so much.