By the time I met Amy, I had been on Maple Ward for nearly 3 days, being induced, and was a bit grumpy, as it had taken my body so long that my baby was going to be arriving on my birthday. Amy recognised this and was really welcoming, encouraging and supportive. As soon as it reached midnight, she wished me Happy Birthday and made me feel better about sharing my birthday.

She explained everything that was going to happen and all of the pain relief options available. I had planned on trying to go without, but was in more pain than I thought I would be, and Amy encouraged and highlighted that I had every right to pain relief. Once in our room, I was very much internalising my pain rather than being loud and letting it out, but she could tell when it was getting too much and offered to get me more pain relief. She explained absolutely everything to me, so I never wondered why different people came in to look at my readings or why she was adjusting my drip.

She was an amazing mentor to the student she had with her. Amy explained how to write my notes and why it was important to write each thing down. At one point, there had been an emergency in A&E, so my oxytocin drip needed to be temporarily paused, but she explained this clearly to me and assured me that it wouldn’t be long. She also offered to help any rooms that needed it, as a few members of staff had gone to the emergency. However, Amy really shone when my baby's heart rate drastically dropped.

I was chatting and had not noticed but she was immediately on it checking the position of the monitor and then explaining to me that she needed to pull the emergency button and what was going to happen because of this, so when about 10 staff members came rushing in I was not surprised at all and whilst they all got on with their roles she constantly kept me and my partner informed as to what was going to happen and calmly and coherently explained why I needed to go under general anaesthetic which made me feel so much calmer and confident in the team around me.

 I was rushed down to have an emergency C-section, and she was right there with me, keeping me calm and laughing at my bad jokes. I could tell my partner was very worried and scared, and she let me know that she would make sure he was ok and that he was informed how the surgery was going and how the baby and I were. Having Amy’s constant presence and reassurance whilst everyone was setting up meant that I never felt stressed or worried about what was happening. I knew that they had me and that everything was going to be ok.

She came and checked on me after the surgery and let me know who to contact if I found myself suffering from any trauma down the road. Amy also kindly wrote our baby's birth details on her plaque. Both my partner and I will never forget how she turned what could have been a really traumatic event into a crazy but amazing story to tell our daughter