under-staffed at matilda?

I agree with Kimmi. I also delivered at the Matilda & had a wonderful experience. The nurses & midwives were helpful & kind.

I also read the article. I feel for the parents & it's a tragic thing to happen. But I think if it is indeed what happened it was the fault of the doctor & not the hospital.

Is it very common to administer drugs to speed up labor for whatever the reason the patient's doc deemed necessary? There are so many things that wasn't mentioned in the article. Could the drug have caused brain damage to the unborn child? If it can, it can happen anywhere & not only in Matilda? I am sure all the midwives there are certified & have proper training, and they have onsite doctors who live across the street at the Matilda residence. The only thing that I know is, if a baby is born with complications, the Matilda doesn't have an ER, hence they are not equipped to handle those infants, these infants will be sent to QE's ER. So i did comtemplate over Matilda & Adventist. But since my husband & I decided our pregnancy was smooth & everything was going fine with the baby, we chose Matilda.

So in my personal opinion, if you have a high risk pregnancy, or for whatever reason you think you need an ER (just in case), then Matilda is not for you.
 
I gave birth to both my daughters at the Matilda (2003 and 2006). I had very positive experiences both times.

My OB did not arrive in time for the delivery of my second daughter - she was in a hurry - and no other doctor was called. I did have two (possibly three, it is all a bit hazy) very experienced midwives in the room at the time. My doctor arrived to deliver the placenta (and charged the full delivery fee, thanks a lot).

I was in a private room both times, but for my second visit was put in a 2 person room by myself for the first two nights (and charged the private rate, but that is another story). The room was fine and I didn't really care about the decoration but the NOISE of the buzzer. That thing doesn't stop day and night. When I was eventually moved to a private room, the buzzer was further away and I finally managed to sleep. I don't know why they don't have a flashing light or something to alert the nurses.

I did notice second time round that I was assisted more by 'assistant' midwives, without as much experience and frankly they just gave some wrong information. I don't know whether I was given the less experienced midwives because I was a second time mum. The experienced midwives, who are just fantastic, didn't visit me much (was lucky to see them once a day).

If I could give Matilda some advice it would be:
1. Don't bother with assistant midwives - for that price, patients want the real thing. You aren't a teaching hospital.
2. Get rid of that damn buzzer.
3. Give the same level of service to second and subsequent mums as you do to first time mums. In my experience, it wasn't the same.
4. Train the midwives so they give the same or similar advice and don't contradict one another - it is frustrating and confusing (I think the same thing could be said of all maternity hospitals)

I also noticed prior to giving birth in March that the Matilda was advertising for midwives on their website, so they obviously needed extra staff.

But I must say that overall the standard of care was fantastic and I would not hesitate to go there again.
 
I spoke to my ob about the very sad and unfortunate incident at the Matilda in the 1980s and he says that following this the Matilda realised the need for a ob on the site 24 hrs a day, which there now is.
 
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