Stewart

My wife developed pre-eclampsia and was induced at 7 months (33 weeks) into her pregnancy. She became more unwell and needed an emergency c-section. Our baby, Alexandra, stayed in SCBU (Special Care Baby Unit) for several weeks before she was discharged.

Stewart’s wife, Claire, wasn’st able to go see their baby for a little while after giving birth. He thought it was good that the hospital set up a camera next to the cot for his wife.

Age at interview 38

Gender Male

I was allowed up after they’d done the checks and observations.

OK

I was allowed to go up and see her. Obviously Claire wasn’st allowed to go up straight away; I think it was possibly the next day. What they did do which was a brilliant thing, and I hope they do a lot more of it, is they’d set up a camera up beside where our child was, and they had a monitor down beside Claire, so she could actually see the child.

Oh wow

And what was happening and it didI’m sure it had an audio bit so we could if I was upstairs in SCBU (Special Care Baby Unit) with the child that Claire could hear and we could speak to each other. I thought that was an amazing thing to do sort of thing yeah.

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Stewart and his wife, Claire, requested a meeting at the hospital to talk about some aspects that they were unhappy with. The meeting also helped them process things a bit more.

Age at interview 38

Gender Male

Yeah there was a few aspects of her pregnancy and at the hospital that we weren’t happy with.

OK

That there was certain things in the child report that we were as well that we hadn’st been told about.

OK yeah sure

That we wanted to speak to the hospital about that.

OK

So, we just got in contact to see Dr [Hospital Doctor] for an informal chat with him, it wasn’st kind of a knuckle wrap kind of. You know it was just for us to get answers about what we’d seen and hadn’st been told sort of thing.

And did you value that opportunity to informally engage with the hospital?

Yeah it was very important for us. There was obviously a few things that we wanted to get wrap our head round as well that we obviously hadn’st known.

And then obviously try and help the hospital with things that they’d missed to make sure it didn’st happen again to anyone else.

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