NHS midwives rant

MamaMoo_2

Dear angry Irish midwife who delivered my first son last year: screw you.
Thanks to your 'professional' administration of pethidine I have had numbness in my right leg since I gave birth. Now I'm pregnant again, whenever I lie down, the patch of numbness spreads down as far as my knee and up as high as my hip. Grrrrr.

I'm fed up of dealing with crap midwives.

My community midwife with my first son couldn't give two shiny sh*ts about my pregnancy, and when I called for advice I was always told to go to hospital (the hospital where I was having my son was about 14 miles away, my midwife was about 3 miles away)
She just decided to fob me off as I wasn't going to be giving birth in 'her' hospital. Every time I turned up at hospital I was told that my midwife should have dealt with it!!!

Then my midwife during labour ignored me. She was this small, yappy Irish woman, who walked in to the cubicle (I was on a ward at the time, not delivery suite, as despite broken waters & contractions I apparently wasn't dilated and therefore wasn't in labour. This was at midday) and rammed a pethidine injection into my leg, so badly that I've had no feeling in a large patch of my leg since. I didn't see her after that for hours.
She also refused to believe that at 3pm (3 hours after being 0cm) that I needed to push, and decided to patronise me by sending her student midwife to tell me "you just need a poo". She refused to see me herself, instead passing on messages like "you can't have any more pain relief" and "I can't stop you being sick" (I hadn't aske for any more pain relief or anti-sickness drugs, I just wanted someone to come and check my dilation)
At 3:40pm I finally shouted loud enough to attract the attention of a doctor, who finally had a peek. The midwife was stood behind the doctor going "She was 0cm 4 hours ago, she's just being melodramatic, no need to waste your time here"
To which the doctor replied "look at that, can you see what that is? That would be a head. Get this woman to delivery NOW!"
30 minutes later I had my son. The midwife was standing there saying "why didn't you come and tell me" to which I almost threw a shoe at her.

Now, this time around, I have a midwife who I haven't seen for 12 weeks, and who doesn't even know my name. The last time I went, she stood there calling someone called "Catherine". Eventually she said my "Mrs. X", which was me. She said I've been calling you for the last few minutes. I said "no you haven't. My name's not Catherine."
Apparently, she hadn't bothered reading my pregnancy notes, and had decided to pick a random name off of it to call me by, which was one of my middle names. How hard can it be to assume the first name I wrote down is my first name, and the second name I wrote down is my first middle name, not my first name.
On top of that, she filled in my pregnancy notes incorrectly (insisted on me sitting there for an hour while she filled them in. Wouldn't let me do it) and filled in my family history as of it were my current medical state.
Subsequently, I almost lost out on having screening tests done, and the hospital almost ended up putting me on a totally unnecessary care plan.

It just annoys me.

I know it's an odd rant, but I'm sitting here with no feeling in my right leg, which has stopped me sleeping, and it's all because done idiot midwife couldn't administer an injection properly. Grr



Rant over.


Phew

lidlest

I'll add to that - because of the wholly unprofessional midwifes and staff at my local hospital my son waited 3 days for an ultrasound, 3 days for a pediatrician, 3 days with mum asking every staff member she saw what was being done. He then, when she finally lost it in the middle of the ward and they did an ultrasound, had to be rushed to great ormond street for emergency surgery and lost his testicle. (To be fair, even though i don't want to be, he probably would have lost it anyway BUT they put him at risk of gangrene and of the other one twisting!).

I'm sorry you are still in pain, I wonder why many people go into a 'caring' profession when they don't give two !!!!!!.

P.S my sisters a midwife - not around here - and they are not ALL bad

nonnatus

Hmmm. Your stories sound awful and there are indeed plenty of midwives who, after a lifetime in the job, care very little about the women on the ward and far more about enforcing pointless beaurocratic rules. They also use student midwives as skivvies. But long service breeds "untouchability" and they are merely waiting for the pensions to kick in.
For every one of these "professionals" though, there are many others who love the job and the women in their care, who put in many hours more than they are paid for and who make a real difference to women in labour.
I'll keep your fingers crossed that your next pregnancy is better cared for.

newidentity

OP - I feel for you and your first experience sounds like it was very difficult, but there is no need to slate the whole profession. There are many more midwifes who do a fantastic job and are great at their profession under very difficult circumstances.

mrs_sparrow

When I had DS I had arranged from the date my pg was confirmed I was having him at home. The MV never arranged it despite me asking every single time I saw her. I called them when I went into labour and she had not arranged it with the hospital either as they said I was not down for a home birth.

However, the 2 midwives that came were actually off duty MV and had given up their own time, through the night, for me to deliver at home. Some midwives are rubbish. Some are worth their weight in gold.

When I had DD in hospital I was put in an old scrubbing up room as all other rooms were full, it was next to the operating theatre and had no heating. I delivered in 20 minutes from contraction 1 and it was so quick the nurse there was in an absolute panic about it. The anaesthatist coming to give me an epidural (too late, bah!!) helped deliver her. I was screaming a lot, LOL, and passing conversation with another lady in the loo the day after and she had been in the operating theatre having a CS listening to me screaming.

Absolutely

OP - I think a lot of women have a horrible experience at the hands of health professionals. Hope you feel better after your rant.

I pulled the emergency cord thingy you get in hospital toilets. I'd had a c-section (twins). I was helped back to bed, patted on the head and told I was being a bit dramatic for pulling the cord because I felt so unwell.

3 hours later, they paged a surgeon to come in from the golf course (true) as I needed a hysterectomy due to internal bleeding.

At least after that I got my own room on the ward! It had a TV I didn't have to pay for - very MSE!!!

hollydays

I feel sad and angry for you too.

lidlest

nonnatus wrote: »

Hmmm. Your stories sound awful and there are indeed plenty of midwives who, after a lifetime in the job, care very little about the women on the ward and far more about enforcing pointless beaurocratic rules. They also use student midwives as skivvies. But long service breeds "untouchability" and they are merely waiting for the pensions to kick in.
.

This is a good point, about student midwives, i was looked after very well by one of them and it was a student midwife who eventually got me a pediatrician when i was having a melt down.

miniemma

OP that is an awful story and one that almost matches the story my mum tells of giving birth to me 38 years ago!!!!!! They simply refused to believe she was ready to push and kept her on the ward. She was then shunned by the nurses because she didn't want to breast feed. You really would have thought things could have changed in all that time.

Thankfully my MW was great. She had the word trainee crossed out on her badge so I was a little worried at first but there was no need.

Kaye1

I think you may be surprised at how many replies you get- I really don't know too many people who had genuinely good experiences. Some because of the horrible MW involved and some because the staff are overworked and understaffed.

It has put me right off having number two.......

QueenieB

OP I'm sorry to hear you had such a bad experience. Some of mine haven't been too wonderful either, and last time I did end up with nerve damage which causes numbness in my right leg. I really can't blame the MW for that though, since I didn't have any injections!