Can you choose to go to a different midwife?

Morty_007too

I saw lots of midwives during my pregnancy but you know what? I wouldn't know the midwives who helped me during labour if I bumped into them in the supermarket! I was so out of it the whole time I can't remember any them! (55 hour labour!!)

As for notes, they shouldn't be sent through the post unless they are trackable by some means. I would put a written complaint in about this so they can start to trace them in the hospital system or with RM.

I wouldn't change midwives just because you haven't seen the same one twice...thats par for the course (in most places as explained above) i'm afraid. I don't even have a regular GP really, I just see the one who is available when I need an appointment and be thankful there is someone to look after me.

As long as your notes are accurate and complete (once you find them) any anxieties and concerns should be adequately covered in them so as not to neeed to explain everything all over again to each new one. I actually quite liked being seen by a team rather than a single midwife. It meant that someone knew me whenever I rang up rather than having to speak to a stranger.

mspig

With all three of my pregnancies i had different midwives through out and i didn't have any of the onces i had seen during pregnancy at the birth.
However during preganancy with my last child the hospital also lost my notes not once but three times it was a shambles.
I also had two different midwives whilst giving birth to my last one due to shift change, and they didn't like listening to my opinion on what i wanted during birth it was a nightmare. But my other two were great births and no probs, sometimes the luck of the draw i think.

funky-footprints

can i ask why your notes were being posted to you ? i dont understand why they would be ?

Having had 3 children myself, all 3 in different hospitals, i have never realy had a relationship with a midwife, as I have never been fortunate to see one enough times. With my first and 2nd child, all my home visits were done by one girl who was lovely, but all hospital visits and both deliverieres were by someone i had never met. With my 3rd child it was a different midwife every time !

i dont know when your booking in appointment is ? that should be when you meet your midwife ? but in some surgeries i think your GP does your booking in appointment ? ? have you been scanned yet ?

i think to change your team, you would need to move surgeries, but you could end up with the same group of midwives as here they tend to float between surgeries, using the one local hospital.

seeing as the nhs is soo cash strapped in wales, and there is a shortage of midwives your treatment sounds the norm to me, apart from the unfortunate loss of your notes, which as i said before i dont understand ? ?

inkie

During my epidural 'labour' I didn't even bother to ask their names as they changed shifts

You shouldn't have to be asking people's names. We (midwives) should be introducing ourselves to you at shift change, regardless of what is going on!

inkie

[QUOTE]
can i ask why your notes were being posted to you ? i dont understand why they would be ?

[/QUOTE]

One of the reasons why notes would be posted is prior to 'booking'. This is so that the m2b can start and fill in some of the information in them - demographics, family history/medical history etc, for this to then be discussed at the booking appointment with the midwife, and the notes then completed by conversation with the m2b and the midwife at 'booking' - which takes places either (preferably) at home or in the antenatal clinc at the surgery. This is to facilitate partnership working. At this stage, when the notes are in the post, they are blank - i.e. not containing any 'confidential' information.
We operated a system where if the m2b called into the surgery to make an appointment for booking, a set of notes and explanatory leaflet would be given - if they phoned in to make the appointment, then the same would be posted out - but would not have any obsteric history of medical history in them.

moggylover

My God, I do think I am lucky I had my two around here! I was introduced to both of the midwives at my Doctors, and saw either one or the other of them at nearly every check up for both babies! However, with the birth of my first I was warned that I would have to have a hospital midwife as one of the two was on holiday - and the other was already booked for a home birth and would have to be available for that - I was fine with this.

The staff at West Wales General in Carmarthen were lovely, and the midwife I was asigned the night my first was born was very good and the staff really respected a "special" that I had asked for in my birth plan - including the doctor who had to shift my sons big head a bit with the venteuse! Not all the way out - just he had to be difficult and get it at an angle so that he was stuck on my pelvic bone:rolleyes: so she used it to straighten his head up and then delivery was normal.

On the second son - my regular midwife was available - but had two of us on the go on the same day - so she had to have help from a duty midwife but literally as soon as the other lady had given birth Nesta ran from that room into mine, washed her hands, changed her pinney and was delivering mine! She was sterling, and wonderful and totally exhausted that day - I think it was her 4th baby in 24 hours - and hardly any sleep - but she did not let any of us down!

Agutka

inkie wrote: »

You shouldn't have to be asking people's names. We (midwives) should be introducing ourselves to you at shift change, regardless of what is going on!

Maybe they did. I just remember one instance when I woke up from a sleep (lovely epidural following two sleepless nights, so I got some rest) to find a stranger checking the leads of the monitor round my belly. She just told me to go back to sleep . Maybe she did introduce herself first though.

I really didn't care at any rate - I just registered the extremely handsome anesthestisthe.... drug man... was called Thomas :happyhear:rotfl:

Besides, having just one midwife can be bad. I know two girls in my NCT class kept running into one great example who was so horrible they both made written complaints against her.

Next time I'm pregnant I'm moving near Inkie!

LondonDiva

moggylover wrote: »

On the second son - my regular midwife was available - but had two of us on the go on the same day - so she had to have help from a duty midwife but literally as soon as the other lady had given birth Nesta ran from that room into mine, washed her hands, changed her pinney and was delivering mine! She was sterling, and wonderful and totally exhausted that day - I think it was her 4th baby in 24 hours - and hardly any sleep - but she did not let any of us down!

Great for you and the other families, but not for the midwife, who must have felt under a lot of pressure to attend a birth when she was exhausted and should probably have been sleeping.

If something had gone wrong, the patients and hospital would have been very unsympathetic that she had not taken a break or handed over and something had gone wrong.

While it's good to have a named midwife, it's also neccessary to think that s/he may not be the appropriate person when your time comes.

moggylover

LondonDiva wrote: »

Great for you and the other families, but not for the midwife, who must have felt under a lot of pressure to attend a birth when she was exhausted and should probably have been sleeping.

If something had gone wrong, the patients and hospital would have been very unsympathetic that she had not taken a break or handed over and something had gone wrong.

While it's good to have a named midwife, it's also neccessary to think that s/he may not be the appropriate person when your time comes.

I totally agree that she should not have to work like that - but as she pointed out - the rest of the week had been quiet - and we (her patients)were all just bloody minded enough to do it all at the same time - despite very different due dates!;)

She would normally have left after the second one and gone home to bed - but as the third and fourth mums were taking ages (:o ) to really get going - she just took some time to have a sleep in one of the on-call rooms - and then came back to see to mum number 3 and myself. She had help - but was determined to be with us.