Midwives

[abcd1234]

Does anyone lese find their midwives are absolutely rubbish??

I went for my 16 week apointment last week, they booked me in a week early, me and OH sat in the waiting room for an hour with another couple, when we complained the receptionist was no help just going "are you sure you've got your time and day right" (wanted to hit her) when they finally rang through to mudwife they were like oh shes not expecting you, she'll come see you in a minute. When she came out us and the other couple complained, turned out they'd triple booked the appointment and midwife had seen that time slot.
When we finally got in she didnt discuss any of my bloods taken last time with me, didnt weigh me, didnt do the fundal height, listened to babies heart beat for litterally 10 secs (which wasnt nice on OH as it was first time he'd heard it and our dopler is with a pregnant friend atm) then told me it was ok to take a thrush oral tablet!
I cant help feel that if i wasnt in a good position and willing to research things myself id be screwed. I've asked antoehr midwife who got really angry about the way i've been treated and informed me that you should not take hte oral tablets at all. Makes me wonder what the point of having these midwives is when they treat you like crap and give bad and wrong advice! anyone else had similar experiences??
Clare x

 

[Bee]

I have seen my midwife once - for my booking appointment

At my 22 week appointment I saw my doctor - according to the receptionist there is no midwife at my clinic but thats a pile of rubbish.

I won't see my midwife till my 28 appointment but then I won't see the same one. It will be a different person half the time.

 

[Sophie1102]

Sorry you had a bad time

Normally they don't do the fundal height now until you are past 20 weeks as it's really not that accurate.

My midwife is wonderful, so always comes to my house and just happens to be the one who did my care and delivered my first born. Could you add a 'my midwife is great' option to your poll???

 

[Becs]

Sorry you are having such a rough time with yours. Mines fab! She wants to see me agaIn as last appointment I had she was sick and was being covered so she wants to catch up. She also made me feel really confident about having a home birth, always remembers who i am and has a really holistic approach to midwifery.

I would pay to see her if she wasn't available on the NHS!

 

[Manda&Thomas]

mine ok shes lovely and friendly but i find her info a little bit dated,
shes has no idea about any benifits you can claim for the baby doesnt no what a sure start grant is she thought it was a lump sum of money you get at the end of you maternity pay
things like that she has no idea on so i tend not to ask her anything
other then that shes ok though
manda xx

 

[abcd1234]

there should be a mines great option, it didnt add at first, i must have not pressed the add option button, but i did intend for it to be there
the biggist thing i guess is her giving bad advice about things and waiting for so long, i guess im quite touchy as i odnt want everyone to see me and think that because im young im going to be clueless or a bad mum or they can treat me badly.
I know there are some great midwives out there, like i said before im lucky because i can talk to a great one whenever i have any concerns but unfortunatly theres no way for her to be my midwive
Clare x

 

[JoAnn&Aimee]

I have only seen my midwife once when I was 7 weeks. I haven't heard from her AT ALL since and I ended up having to phone my doctors surgery to get an appointment to see her tomorrow. So far I am not impressed but I've told myself not to judge just yet as it might be with Christmas and New Year things were busy. Shall find out what is going on tomorrow!

 

[missjennipenni]

I have nothing but praise for mine, im having a high-risk pregnancy, and nothing is too much trouble fo rthem. They have been brilliant.

 

[missjennipenni]

mine ok shes lovely and friendly but i find her info a little bit dated,
shes has no idea about any benifits you can claim for the baby doesnt no what a sure start grant is she thought it was a lump sum of money you get at the end of you maternity pay
things like that she has no idea on so i tend not to ask her anything
other then that shes ok though
manda xx

tbh, im not sure they are meant to be clued up on benefits. Thats more for the jobcentre i think.

 

[Sherlock]

Well mine is lovely even though I've had an appointment cancelled with 10 minutes notice and she was away for 2 other appointments so I had to wait a week or two longer to see her.

I've never taken my hubby along to my MW appointments as I think he'd be bored stiff and/or grossed out at the convos we sometimes have.

At my 16 week appointment I didn't discuss my blood test results with her. She had said to me I'd only hear if there anything if there was a problem and as I didn't, I took it to mean all was fine, so felt there was nothing to discuss.

I have never been weighed. She took my start weight from my medical record and has said that tbh, she does not hold much with weighing and unless I was becoming ill, she didn't make too much of it, that PG women have enough to contend with. She always asks if I am eating ok etc, but does not weigh.

Didn't have the fundal height at 16 weeks, it was done at 19 weeks.

Heartbeat was the same, literally only a 10 second listen and done. Didn't mind that too much as we bought a Doppler.

I am only usually in there for 15 minutes tops and my GP's approach to the whole MW/pregnancy thing is very low key. Which works for me. I am doing ok, baby is kicking and my scans have shown that baby is growing well etc, so for the rest, I am happy to take a more laid back approach to it all.

My MW always dips my urine if I take it, if not says to drop it off and it'll be tested. So far so good there.

I think a lot of it boils down to your expectations and so on. I personally prefer the less is more approach. I'm not ill I'm pregnant! And I feel well in myself so I am trying not to worry about things. I like that my MW is no nonsense. She is friendly, always talks to me, but is very matter of fact and I respond to that. For someone else she might seem an ogre and come over as an awful MW

 

[Sherlock]

I have only seen my midwife once when I was 7 weeks. I haven't heard from her AT ALL since and I ended up having to phone my doctors surgery to get an appointment to see her tomorrow.

Err for many MW's it is a case of you have to book your own appointments, they don't make them for you. My MW always tells me when she next wants to see me, and I make the appointment on the way out. A week either side sometimes, but thats ok. I'd never expect her to arrange it and contact me.

It may well be your surgery's policy for the patient to make their own appointments, hence why you didn't hear anything

 

[Sherlock]

shes has no idea about any benifits you can claim for the baby doesnt no

I think that does not fall into her job description All that sort of thing is another Gov sector entirely. Jobcentre is the place to ask all that.

 

[daftscotslass]

My experience is similar to Sherlock's. I've seen two different midwives, the first one was lovely and the second was clearly run off her feet but I couldn't fault her care. Both answered any questions I had and both were surprised at how easy going I was with it all. I've no doubt that if I had any problems or concerns they would be there for me.

 

[Bee]

My experience is similar to Sherlock's. I've seen two different midwives, the first one was lovely and the second was clearly run off her feet but I couldn't fault her care. Both answered any questions I had and both were surprised at how easy going I was with it all. I've no doubt that if I had any problems or concerns they would be there for me.

What group are u? I'm thistle

 

[daftscotslass]

What group are u? I'm thistle

Same! The community midwife I saw at my own surgery was a different "team" though, but I'm with Thistle on the day itself!

 

[Bee]

What group are u? I'm thistle

Same! The community midwife I saw at my own surgery was a different "team" though, but I'm with Thistle on the day itself!

I have seen one midwife of the thistle team - when I had my booking appointment

 

[muppetmummy]

I've had two midwife appointments so far, a different one each time. They were both very nice, and did what they were supposed to, but I don't think they did anything special. No one has bothered to listen for babys heartbeat yet.

With James, the community midwives were lovely, but in hospital there were some horrible one's! They were really stressed due to staff shortages and ended up taking it out on the patients by being short tempered and I felt totally ignored. Has put me off having another hospital birth!

 

[BeckyJ]

i only met my proper midwife today as i saw the wrong one before - dont ask

anyway she was very nice, i really got on with her

 

[kalia]

My midwives are great!

I haven't asked about what medicines I can take - I've asked my doctor and a pharmasist as that is more their thing.
I haven't asked about benefits either, but again I don't think that's their job.
I haven't been weighed and I don't think it would tell them anything if they did weigh me as I could very easily have put on weight over Christmas so it wouldn't be giving them the weight of baby et al.
I make the appointments with the midwife, she doesn't get in touch with me, and because there are so many of us having babies in the area and she only sees people one day a week you do have to phone a few weeks in advance. But they do say when the next appointment should be so if I make it straight away there's no problem.

We only listened to the heartbeat for around 10 seconds but to be honest, that was more than enough. It stays the same, so although it is exciting to hear it I wouldn't want to be listening to it for minutes. Even when I had an emergency at 19 weeks and rushed to hospital I found that listening for 10 seconds was fine - I knew then that baby was OK. On that occasion I paid no attention to anything else going on after that because I was so relieved!
At each appointment they check my urine (I HATE peeing in the tube! I use a box and then pour it in but even that seems quite challenging ) and check my blood pressure. They ask if my hands and feet are swelling and about how I'm doing generally. They check the fundal height but I was 18 and a half weeks the first time they did that. I've had blood taken once and I think they take more blood next time. And that's about it. They ask if I have questions but I spend so much time on PF that I never do

I'm sorry you guys are finding difficulties with your midwives I wonder how much of it is due to having higher expectations than what the midwives duties are. Or maybe I have misunderstood their role.

This is my first child and it will be interesting to see if things are quite different when giving birth - I imagine it is far more stressful for the midwives working in the hospital and I don't think I'll be in the mood to care about their stress while I'm in labour

 

[Happybunny]

My MW is really lovely, I like her a lot. I did have another young lass booking me in whilst she was on holiday. She was nice too, but a little hapless. She made some mistakes taking my bloods and nearly had me rushed into hospital for a blood transfusion. I can laugh about it now...