Please help. I need 20 people (any age) who have been through a labour/pregnancy to give me their story (if they can) on how they coped with their midwife. Did you see the same one? How could it have been improved? What would you expect following your next pregnancy?

Approved

I'll do it if you want hun?

What's it for?

xxx

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Its for an essay i'm doing on how midwifery care can be improved, all I need is a quick brief discription on how your midwife handled your care etc.

ill offer mine of you need it...
in here or on PM??

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Either hon, whatever you feel comfortable with x

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I'll help hun. When I went for my booking in appointment the midwife was lovely, the next time I went back I saw another midwife who was really nice too, she explained to me that she was covering while a new midwife was found for the surgery as the previous one had cut her hours down which meant she couldn't stay at my surgery. The third one I saw was awful. She was very abrupt with me, spoke to me as though I was stupid and generally unpleasent. I saw her 3 times as I wasn't sure if it was just me being hormonal, the second time I saw her she had a student midwife in with her and she just said "this is a student midwife she will be here during the appointment" I mentiond that my hips were hurting she asked me to show her where so I did and she pratically laughed in my face and told me it was my PELVIS that was hurting and left it at that. The third time I took DH with me so he could give me a second opinion so to speak, again I mentioned my hips/pelvis and this time she said she would refer me for physio at the end of the appointment I had to mention it again only for her to tut at me roll her eyes and say she would do it now. I ended up making a complaint about her to the doctors and head of midwifery at the hospital. Her manager called me we discussed the option of me going back to see this particular midwife and I said No so she said she would see me instead. At 30weeks I went into pre term labour which was stopped with Atosiban and I was told I would be under the care of a consultant from then on. I kept phoning the hospital for the appointment but they kept fobing me off. I went to my appointment with the manager and mentioned it to her, now although she was very friendly she said there was no point in me wasting time waiting for an appointment with the consultant. I was a little annoyed that she hadn't taken my feelings into consideration and thought about how worried I was but left it as I didn't want to stress out. When I actually had LO the midwives on the maternity ward weren't that nice but the manager did come to see how I was doing. The Midwives in labour ward were absolutely brilliant, the one that took care of me during the night was really helpful (she even shooed my MIL away for me at 8am) the ones that helped deliver were fantastic even took LO for me while I had a bath and sleep (very long labour and no sleep). The ones on the post natal ward were a mix some were brilliant some were awfull but the midwife that came to my house was the one I had booked in with and she was brilliant. The next time I will be going private and will not go near the one at the surgery. Hope this helps, if you need anything else just ask x

i'll do it jazzy for you now honey will edit and pop in this thread xx

My mw was a community mw, arranged through my gp surgery, she covers this area, and i mainly saw her throughout my pregnancy and whilst in labour. i was also under consultant led care at my hospital for pcos and raised bmi.

The mw team that dealt with my were ok, there care during my pregnancy was good, and i was seen regularly, and the after care however, wasn't very good - i left hospital 24hours following my 40hour labour and emergency c-section, and then got a very bad infection and my wound opened up, and i also haemorrhaged, the mw's failed to spot any of this, they wouldn't come out to see me and my gp surgery had to take over. i ended up seeing an out of hours doc, as it was the weekend, and the hospital couldn't tell me if i'd actually go back and see a doc that night my recovery, imo, was hindered by this. it took my around 8 weeks post partum to begin to feel normal again.

my community mw, who i saw mainly, was however, terrible. she was rude, and constantly put me down over my weight, and where i lived! she even questioned if james was maddi's dad at one point. she seems to turn after i told her about the private scans i had. i was highly disappointed with her, as i was a nervous first time pregnant mum, and needed reassurance, and i felt she played on my insecurities. even my gp commented on how i'd changed and became so nervous and worried following my experiences with this mw. she never explained any thing, and blamed everything that happened during my pregnancy on being over weight, when i was actually losing it due to being sick every day of my whole 41 week term.

next pregnancy i will be more self-assured and will stick up for myself more! i will refuse to see this community mw, and i will make sure my needs are heard. i think its hard enough being first time pregnant, and worrying about whats going to happen, as its all so new, exciting and a worrying time, that i certainly didn't need her treating me like an idiot x