Racking up thousands of pounds worth of care, I received weekly scans and one-to-one appointments with spectacularly clever obstetricians, whose no nonsense expertise balanced with sensitivity. Once I was admitted, 10 days before delivery, the day-to-night monitoring was transferred to the midwifery team who accelerated the emotional support. Explaining every test result, answering my copious questions patiently, making midnight toast deliveries and turning a blind eye to an early Sunday break-out for a fry up with my partner-in-crime in bed 2. 

When the doctors told me the placenta might abrupt, it was the midwives who held my hand and told me they would save me and my baby should this happen, whatever time of day or night. ‘There is always a theatre and always an anaesthetist and you have no idea how fast we run if you hit the emergency bell’ were the words that comforted me that night.

I experienced many things that fuel our concerns about the NHS. A scan with a doctor who’d had only three hours sleep, avid cleaning and MRSA swabs, and truly bad food. But what I also witnessed were patients who behaved terribly to the staff, bucked the rules of the ward and complained in private about the care. At no point did I witness a doctor or a midwife treat any of these patients with the same contempt. It must be accepted as part of the job. But it isn’t acceptable.

Once my baby was in HDU, the care accelerated once again to specialist paediatric teams who carried out hourly observations and treated her with a love and commitment usually reserved for parents. When transferred from high dependency to the SCBU unit at our local Horton Hospital in Banbury, I was welcome to stay 24 hours a day and encouraged to lead the care of my baby with total support and encouragement from the nursing staff. Now at home, I’m receiving weekly visits from the community nurses and daily calls from the breastfeeding support team. Without these dedicated individuals, I certainly wouldn’t have had such a happy ending and for that I will be eternally grateful.