Page 1 of Midwife Advice

Before I get going if the dudes who don`t like personal threads and are going to go off on one about how this is a public forum and nob off sort of thing wouldn`t mind leaving now and going back to the others, I`d appreciate not getting ranted at. :) (Not having a go at anyone, just a warning)

As you lot always seem to know the answer to everything in the whole wide world, I was wondering if you could help with a query bout maternity stuffs...

I live slap bang in between two hospitals...one of which I`ve had bad experiences with and have no faith in, the other which I`ve only had good care and trust implicitly.

Since seeing my doctor to have the pregnancy confirmed, I`ve asked to see the midwives at the goos hospital, and was told it wouldn`t be a problem. However, I`ve been passed to the midwife team I didn`t want to see...they`re atrocious, I can never get an answer on the phone from anyone in the team, when I do see them, they are so vague its infuriating (I had to have a second dating scan and couldn`t get them to give me the reason til after it had been done, so spent a week terrified something was wrong) and I`ve been waiting 7 weeks for a set of blood test results, which I`m not fairly certain they`ve lost, but they keep "chasing it up" and failing to get back to me as promised.

How can I go about insisting I see a different team of midwives...I know that the older a midwife is the better they`re supposed to be due to experience, but these two ladys are honestly so dozy they may as well be senile.

I have something I want to discuss urgently, but when I mentioned it last time it was brushed off and I was given no information at all, and I do not want to have to see these ladies again.

What are my rights with regards to seeing a different team and how do I go about getting it changed?

Quote:
I live slap bang in between two hospitals...one of which I`ve had bad experiences with and have no faith in

This is of no help to you whatsoever regarding your question but my wife and I had an awful experience due to so called experts in our local hospital. When my wife was pregnant with our daughter she went to have a blood test and when she went back to recieve the results the woman doctor there went through the results. The so called `expert` stated that there was a problem - I won`t go through the gritty details - and advised us to abort the baby!?!?!! Well , to cut a long story short my wife gave birth to a 7Ib 6oz healthy baby and she has not even suffered a slight sniffle!!

My wife also had a caesarian(sp?) and was hooked up to all sorts of tubes a gadgets straight after. The next day the dinner lady came round and just shouted that the meals were ready and to come a get it. My wife could not move an inch and had to shout that she was not mobile whatsoever. The dinner lady , or whatever she was , simply shouted back `tough then coz I aint coming into your ward` and walked off without leaving her anything to eat!! It was only when I arrived just before lunch was served that I was able to get her next meal for her.

My wife was also called pathetic to her face coz she wasn`t comfortable with breastfeeding and wasn`t producing any milk anyway. I also noticed that the staff in the post-labour ward were nasty and I had run-ins with them. I could go on forever at what awful experiences we experienced during those days. The only shining light was our beautiful daughter....a lovely gorgeous child that we were advised to abort!!?!

I`m hoping that our local hospital was a `one off` with regards to their attitude...



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I`m guessing fns doesn`t really need nightmare stories at the moment...

I can only suggest you try speaking to your GP and see if there`s anything they can do, or try ringing the other hospital and speak to their antenatal dept.

Good luck.

Might be worth putting this on the bounty forums (lots of helpful, pregnant women there who may have had a similar experience)


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This item was edited on Monday, 24th November 2008, 07:38

firstly congrats I didnt know u were preggie :D

look crap happens and results do get lost paper or electric format.

Staff are under enormous workloads and huge amounts of stress and like us all snap from time to time but your experience is unexceptable. Try googling your local PCT and look for the PALs team they will assist you in making a complaint and ensuring your transfered to the other midwife team.

They will follow the complaint through and ensure that changes happen.

I hope the rest of the pregnancy goes smooth and hassle free :D goodlook

mmm chocolate

You can choose who you want your care from but, if you are out of area for midwife visits, you may have to meet them at a GP surgery.

Nick

Hi fluff-n-stuff. Congrats btw!

I`m inclined to agree that the Bounty Forum could be your best bet for some current advice. I had my last child over 9 years ago, and I expect things have changed.

Like you, I live slap bang between 2 hospitals, but they are also under different Health Authorities. The midwife who saw me throughout my pregnancy was based at my doctors` surgery, but I was adamant that if I needed to go into hospital, I wanted to go to Ashford. However my GP and Midwife were under the Maidstone Authority. So, this meant I was unable to have a proper guided tour of the William Harvey at Ashford during my pregnancy, my midwife that had looked after me throughout my pregnancy would not be able to accompany me to hospital if she was needed to, and I needed to specify which hospital I wanted to be taken to if I ended up calling out an ambulance (if they came from the other hospital, then they would be taking me to that one whether I liked it or not)

So even back then, you were certainly entitled to dictate which hospital you would go to for midwifery etc, but if there was a conflict of Health Authorities, it caused quite a confusion. Sounds like you need to get your rights confirmed then get things sorted as soon as possible. Good luck. :)

This item was edited on Monday, 24th November 2008, 14:09

Are there any Birthing Units in your local area?
We had (well obviously it was actually my wife who had them) both of ours at a local Unit and it was brilliant both times.
On both occasions we were the only people there and had the full attention of the midwife (wives) as needed. They were people we`d gotten to know during my wife`s pregnancy and everything was just as we wanted it.

It was like going private, but paid for by the NHS!

Ask at your GP, because if we hadn`t known about our local Unit and asked about it specifically then it wouldn`t have been pointed out to us as an option.

Good luck with it all!

Id would follow Stu`s advise (it would of been what I would of advised)

Birthing centers are great but do really check them out as some/most are short staffed and not open 24 hrs everyday - try telling your baby to wait til tomorrow :/

PALS is the way forward but also consider the other hospital. Maternity is an area which is seperate to any other part of the hospital so you may feel quite happy if you see it. Go for a visit to get a feel for the place.

As for the blood test - ring your surgery and ask the receptionist to look it up for you. After 7 weeks I can almost guarentee its been lost :( but your GP can re-do it for you

Good luck with everything and let us know how you get on

Juls

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Birthing centers are great but do really check them out as some/most are short staffed and not open 24 hrs everyday - try telling your baby to wait til tomorrow
Obviously I only know about our experience (Juls is bound to know more), but we had to ring the midwife on a given mobile number when we were on our way so that she could turn up as well. They were short staffed I suppose - we had one midwife there only (they did all the admin too, so there were only three of us in the whole building) for most of the time during the birth of our firstborn, with another turning up during the last stages and pitching in to help.

Congrats... you can choose who you want to see and which hospital... cant comment on any hospital other than Torbay which i have first hand experience of and have to say they were `EXCELLENT`.



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