Nice people thread part 6 - thrice by twice as nice :)

Spirit_2

Middymum, just to help manage expectations....find out as much as you can about what the whole job is like including the the downsides.

You currently volunteer and see new mums with new babies who want your support.

As a midwife you will have times like this but many that are not. You will be paid, not everyone will be grateful, some will make much of their entitlements, not all your 'women' will be clean and wholesome. There will be documentation and record keeping.

Good luck with your decision making, it is an important role and can be hard going.

MiddyMum

vivatifosi wrote: »

That sounds really good. It would go down a treat in my local hospital. I wanted to sound off about it a while back but my SiL was still in there. My cousin had also had a similar problem. When we went to see her the ward was filfthy, the nurses were standing around, and when one distressed Mum - who'd clearly only recently given birth - asked how to clean her baby who needed their first nappy change - the nurse was leaving and just barked to get a bowl out of the cupboard. No support, no signposting, no compassion, nothing. Meanwhile the nurses stood around high-5ing each other and laughing. Not impressed. We need caring compassionate people on our wards. Incidentally everyone said the midwifery staff were fantastic - it was everyone else that needed a kick up the proverbial.

Oh I am not surprised [unforunately] and I fully expect it to get worse unless the govt gets their finger out of their proverbial and sort out the midwife/nurse shortage problem. Midwife courses are oversubscribed, wards are crying out for staff, but they are not allocating anymore of the budget for staff which is to the detriment of maternity services. There is a lot of bad feeling amongst staff in the NHS at the moment, well it has been that way for a while...they are made to work in dangerous conditions. Too many patients, not enough staff and the staff they do have on the wards rarely get a toilet break on a 12 hour shift. This all causes " attitudes " to arise.. It really is at crisis point at the moment.

lostinrates

Can one of our north of the border gang tell me how to probnpunce athel brose correctly? I have always loved it, and since i made it for dh a few years a go its been his favourite too. But i am not sure i say it correctly.....sss? Zag?

lostinrates

MiddyMum wrote: »

Oh I am not surprised [unforunately] and I fully expect it to get worse unless the govt gets their finger out of their proverbial and sort out the midwife/nurse shortage problem. Midwife courses are oversubscribed, wards are crying out for staff, but they are not allocating anymore of the budget for staff which is to the detriment of maternity services. There is a lot of bad feeling amongst staff in the NHS at the moment, well it has been that way for a while...they are made to work in dangerous conditions. Too many patients, not enough staff and the staff they do have on the wards rarely get a toilet break on a 12 hour shift. This all causes " attitudes " to arise.. It really is at crisis point at the moment.

And yet the private contracted place i mention does brilliantly. Its financially successful and has good success rates and patient satisfaction.

Not least, it was in a 'deprived' area and has really helped improve the area a fair bit, despite the inevitable high street issues, as an edge of town 'retail park' was also part of the investment in the area.

CKhalvashi

PasturesNew wrote: »

So, you know she's an alcoholic/can't help herself ..... and you still set yourself up for a fall.

It's not like she needed bread to eat.... wine's a piggin' luxury! Cheeky mare.... but, you've only yourself to blame.... and it's not like it's left you short so 0 sympathy

I didn't know why she was going, and one would assume that if someone is going anyway, they would have their own money?

Spirit wrote: »

NP mode on.
Did you really think it acceptable to be abusive? Does 'sorting it out' infer using your official role to call them account.

If you swore at one of my staff I would tell you off too.

Careful with your actions on Monday - If you overstepped your privileged boundaries I would let you know that too.

I should have been a little more civil, however she made a huge point of photographing the car, but not the windscreen (as it's not a car park, she reckoned.) There's a legal defense there in the blue badge and where I was parked (directly outside the cafe actually.) And yes, I know, I shouldn't have gone into one.

Nikkster wrote: »

Wow. That's cheap!

I didn't state that their country of origin was Bulgaria

vivatifosi

MiddyMum wrote: »

Oh I am not surprised [unforunately] and I fully expect it to get worse unless the govt gets their finger out of their proverbial and sort out the midwife/nurse shortage problem. Midwife courses are oversubscribed, wards are crying out for staff, but they are not allocating anymore of the budget for staff which is to the detriment of maternity services. There is a lot of bad feeling amongst staff in the NHS at the moment, well it has been that way for a while...they are made to work in dangerous conditions. Too many patients, not enough staff and the staff they do have on the wards rarely get a toilet break on a 12 hour shift. This all causes " attitudes " to arise.. It really is at crisis point at the moment.

I'm not sure what the problem was here, but it seemed like disorganisation rather than money. For example, my cousin could have left hospital a whole day earlier, but there wasn't a doctor available to discharge her and a similar thing with my SiL - she was in hospital 8 hours longer than she needed to be. Meanwhile people couldn't get a bed because people weren't being released. I think the worst thing was the hospital policy that if you wanted to bottle feed you had to bring your own bottles and feed. That's all very well, but my SiL gave birth early and wasn't producing milk but had a newborn that needed feeding. Thankfully she had some bottles and formula packed, but its unnecessary stress. Same thing with breakfast. They didn't bring it to you, it was a buffet. Which is all very well, but if you've had a caesarian and are attached to drips, that's bl**dy difficult. It seemed like a hearless production line. I'm sure there is an issue with regard to nursing shortages too that leads to entrenched attitudes, but the management sucked. Plus the building looked like it was going to fall down any day. Working in that environment would demoralise anyone.

LydiaJ

Spirit wrote: »

That will probably make it easier for your ears to be pollinated by the tassle on top.

Or am I confusing things?

I love this. Why can't I thank it more than once?

MiddyMum wrote: »

I am relatively new on this thread, only made 3 posts or so but I hope I haven't offended anyone. You know, I havent posted that often because it feels like you all know each other really really well and because of this I often don't know what to say in response to certain posts; I can tell there is a lot of history there, and with 370 pages I just don't have the time to catch up. I was given a nice welcome though, so I appreciate that.

Don't let it worry you, MiddyMum. Just join in the random chat and you'll soon find you start to feel you know people too. :hello:

PasturesNew wrote: »

You can iron sheets once they're ON the bed .... if you're the sort of person that [a] cares about ironing has the time to waste.

A better use of the time would be cake baking

I am neither [a] nor and can think of all sorts of things to do that I would consider a better use of the time, too. (Including posting on the NPT)

Nikkster

Hope your DD had a lovely day Lydia

zagubov

lostinrates wrote: »

Can one of our north of the border gang tell me how to probnpunce athel brose correctly? I have always loved it, and since i made it for dh a few years a go its been his favourite too. But i am not sure i say it correctly.....sss? Zag?

It's pronounced like it looks IYSWIM. It's like Axl Rose with a th and a b (but no x).

Simples!;)

I've tried Cranachan which is a dessert version of it, with fruit.:D

I'd recommend it to GDB's DS! A lot of Scottish food is pretty humdrum. The tap water's nicer (softer).

The beers are all different (Edinburgh probably has the only remaining brewing school in the UK now Birimingham's closed). I'd recommend he tries a few new varieties of beers, like Schiehallion (a "real ale" lager) and well he can ask around.

The Chinese food in Scotland's standard fare, but the Indian food's going to be a very pleasant surprise especially if he visits Glasgow.

MiddyMum

vivatifosi wrote: »

I'm not sure what the problem was here, but it seemed like disorganisation rather than money. For example, my cousin could have left hospital a whole day earlier, but there wasn't a doctor available to discharge her and a similar thing with my SiL - she was in hospital 8 hours longer than she needed to be. Meanwhile people couldn't get a bed because people weren't being released. I think the worst thing was the hospital policy that if you wanted to bottle feed you had to bring your own bottles and feed. That's all very well, but my SiL gave birth early and wasn't producing milk but had a newborn that needed feeding. Thankfully she had some bottles and formula packed, but its unnecessary stress. Same thing with breakfast. They didn't bring it to you, it was a buffet. Which is all very well, but if you've had a caesarian and are attached to drips, that's bl**dy difficult. It seemed like a hearless production line. I'm sure there is an issue with regard to nursing shortages too that leads to entrenched attitudes, but the management sucked. Plus the building looked like it was going to fall down any day. Working in that environment would demoralise anyone.

That's crazy, they supply bottles with formula already made up at the ward I am on. I completely understand what you mean regarding the breakfast thing. I think on the surface it can seem like poor organisation and in theory it is, but the staff shortages really are impacting on everything at the moment. There is also a massive fear of litigation in obstetrics [ NHS pays out the most in this specialism - not surprising ] Midwives spend a lot of time documenting, which means they are missing basic care tasks like the things you have mentioned. They have to document everything they do, they have to write notes, and then copy the notes in three different places, then put stickers on it, then file them away and thats with a straight forward birth! In fact on the ward I am on, there isn't a great deal of interaction between midwife and mother as the midwives will spend my 5 hour shift writing notes and then cross-referencing them elsewhere and then again...it has been an eye opener! For me personally, I still want to do it as the rewards are still there. Its sad that you felt that it was like a production line, if you feel that way, I am sure many mothers feel that way too. Hopefully when I am qualified I can change it all.