After giving birth to my second child (another caesarean) I developed an infection again but this time it was picked up within hours of the operation. First they noted my raised heart rate and stepped up observations (my opinion that it was caused by too many malteasers was not thought to be correct). When it didn't come down the obstetricians began testing me for everything they could think of and ruling out such things as pulmonary embolism. When the cause was not apparent they began antibiotic treatment for infection and my heart rate began to fall immediately.

I'm a nosey sort and gave my notes a good read before I left. When it came to reading the observations it was a no brainer, the simple layout showed me exactly when the readings started to show a potential problem. The simple colour coding and graphic lay out are easy to read and difficult to ignore.

We all know our maternity services are stretched - rarely a week goes by without some media story about it. So surely it makes sense to have a system which makes life easier? Until today I didn't know about this charity or the MEOWS charts. What I did know was that the care I recieved second time around was noticably improved; observations were regular, obs equipment had been ugraded, each mother had a designated midwife on post-natal and these charts were in place.

Did they save my life? Who knows. But if they do save lives why aren't they standard across all units?