A Second Guest Post from Kevin Bampton - BABY……

Like the baby this post is later than planned.

My partner Sally gave birth to our fourth child, Elsa, at 4.33 on 6^th May this year.

As ever the Midwives of Portsmouth excelled themselves with their level of care and understanding. They dealt with Sally and me with care, understanding and respect for our wishes. Sally had very specific ideas for the birth and had birth plans for pretty much any eventuality, from the preferred home birth all the way through to an emergency caesarean section.

As with the previous births we have not been straightforward or ordinary in our approach, but after some initial eyebrow raising, and a bit of pushing and talking to the right people on our part, our ideas were honoured and respected.

99% of the people we dealt with were behind us 100%. Thumbs up for that!

Labour was all over the place during the weekend, with contractions coming and going at random intervals and intensities and, with three other children around, ridiculously exhausting. The decision was made by Sally that she couldn’t continue. She was physically and mentally drained and felt she needed a caesarean section.

We contacted the midwives who immediately agreed for her to go in to Queen Alexandra Hospital.

We dropped our other children off at their grandmother’s house and went on to the hospital.

We found she was in a queue for surgery and had several hours to wait before the doctors could get to her. During this time she was in the care of Lisa and (I think) Merida.  They respectfully did their job, not getting in the way or bothering us unnecessarily.

Finally the anaesthetist arrived to discuss the operation with Sally. Our daughter decided this was the moment she would begin to put in some serious effort into being born naturally.

The next hour was the most amazing feat of human endurance I have ever witnessed.  With gentle but firm coaching to my exhausted partner from Lisa and Merida Sally delivered Elsa safely and naturally, to much joy in the room.

A big thumbs up to Lisa and Merida for their amazing care and incredible professionalism.

Elsa was welcomed home by her brother Seth and her sisters Freya and Astrid.

With the cutbacks on staff and resources within the NHS this is a valuable reminder of the kindness, compassion and humanity of the staff who have contact everyday with the people they signed up to help.

These people are why we should resist any attempt to privatise our NHS. 

~~~~

Also, Everdayfolk would like to make an apology; this post is even later than Kevin intended due to a "hiccup" our end.  

Kevin Bampton - Portsmouth 

 http://kevinbampton.wordpress.com/

@Hoodedman_art

A guest post from Kevin Bampton - CHRISTMAS IS COMING! (Ahem. Sorry.)

It’s become much more exciting now that I have children.

It also requires more planning.

There are lists to be compiled from the seemingly random requests and suggestions from my 6 year old boy and four year old girl. Then there’s the question of what do we think our two year old girl would like that is not currently amongst the hand-me-downs from her older siblings.

Once we have our three lists we thin them out. The plastic tat and passing fads carefully removed, in what is nothing less than parental censorship, we are left with a collection of presents that will not drive us mad in the coming year. The items are then distributed by cost, availability and suitability to the various parties who will be spending actual money on these things.

Over the past six years the ‘problem’ of making it as easy as possible for my elderly parents to obtain said items has been solved by limiting the shopping to one store. So, armed with a printed and illustrated list they head off to Knight and Lee in Southsea.

Knight and Lee are owned by John Lewis and have been there as long as I can remember.

Each year they have approached a member of staff with a sheaf of A4. It has been taken from them and chairs found for them to sit, whilst various members of staff have set off through the toy department to find the required items of joy.

Once found (or ordered, with a promise of a phone call once in stock) and paid for, staff have carried the goods to the ground floor and helped obtain and load a taxi.

Each year it has been someone different doing this, so I have no names or photos. But each year the service has been consistently wonderful.

So, thank you staff at Knight and Lee for helping make Christmas shopping a lot easier for my parents and the whole process less of a worry for me.

I look forward to a similar tale from my Mum this year.

Have a fabulous festive season.

Editor's note - so a thumbs up to Knight & Lee from us too.

 Kevin Bampton - Portsmouth 
 http://kevinbampton.wordpress.com/

@Hoodedman_art