I gave birth to my baby girl. M was born via emergency c-section after a very long and very traumatic labor. Because of this, M had done her meconium poo inside the womb and sadly aspirated this as she was born. She was also TTN and her little lungs were working in triple overtime.
Following surgery, I was very ill due to the anesthetic and morphine and thus felt too unwell to feed M right after she was born. My nurse in the ward was able to manually express my breastmilk and then my husband brought in the breastmilk I had antenatally expressed and frozen.
For those first two days of M's life, Mandy was amazing. Both giving M love and cuddles when I was not there, feeding her with a syringe so I could get that little bit of extra sleep. I felt like a complete failure not being able to have a natural birth and the praise I got from Mandy antenatally expressing was exactly what I needed to hear. I can't thank her enough for not only looking after M but mentally as a first-time mum she made me feel so much better, and so much more prepared.
I remember on the second night Mandy sat with my husband and me, explaining everything that was going on with our baby. This was incredibly reassuring knowing that my baby was well but just needed a little extra help. It has now been 10 weeks since our baby came into the world and Mandy is still on my mind.
I was so scared for my baby and feeling like a horrible mother and Mandy and the team were just wonderful. They have touched my life and my heart, and they will forever be a part of M's story. For whatever horrible reason mums and bubs end up in neonatal, I can only hope they have Mandy as their nurse. She was so incredibly attentive, caring, and encouraging Thank you is just not enough.