I am soooooooooo cheesed off with my midwife at the mo.
There is a major shortage of midwives in the area in which I live and so our town 'borrows' one once a week from a nearby town. My midwife is seldom available and I feel as though I am going through this whole pregnancy on my own. I have also been misinformed on various issues. Today, for example, I received a call from the hospital after having had The Triple Test (blood test for Downs and Spina etc) The hospital that they did not have any information pertaining to my Dating Scan that should have accompanied the blood. When I first met my midwife she told me that the county do not offer dating scans and so she could not arrange one for me, but if I wanted to have one then I would have to pay to have one done at a private Foetal Imaging Centre. This I did. When I had the blood test two days ago, the nurse also said that she could not find my dating scan results. I told her that I was not offered a scan (but that I arranged it on my own). She too was shocked and both she and the nurse who called me today told me that the midwife should have arranged for me to have a scan. In order to get the blood results they needed the scan info. Thanks heaven I had one done..even though it cost plenty. The nurse was almost on the telephone straight away booking me in for a scan today!
When I first met the midwife I thought that she came across as rather flighty and disinterested. She is on her hols now and so I can not get hold of her...again. I no longer have confidence in this woman...or the surgery for that matter but am not allowed to change surgeries within the area. I have written to the doctor and feel that I should perhaps write to the Health Authority. Wish I was still in Sheffield. Has anyone else had problems with their midwives?

yes when I had my little girl, I had to have a cesarian section and developed a absus in my would I came home from hospitalafter 5 days I was at home for two days and then I was re-admitted for two days. didn't see or hear from a midwife till three weeks later....Aparently I should have had a visit every day

When I saw my health visitor I told her and she filed a complaint for me, the department contacted me and asked me some questions about my treatment.

Mine is shocking, I've seen her once as a result of her amazing level of care and I'm now 31 weeks pregnant. Thankfully I'm getting extra care at the hospital although my midwitch doesn't know this.
All in all, the small amount she has done has been useless, mine is a high risk pregnancy and I'm supposed to see her frequently.
Bravo to Jessops at the moment and boo to the GP midwife.

I would forget about her if she's proving more than useless. It's too much of an important time for you to be wasting your time with her.

I had a midwife who basically ruined my whole life and ended up taking legal action against The Northern General (which I won). Don't wish to go into the details on here and it's not even that relevant. But suffice to say, do not put up with a service which you are not happy with when the your health and that of the baby depends on good care sometimes.

I'm sure you could ask for a midwife or simply get checked out at the hospital instead (which I found to be better most of the time anyway).

Good luck with the pregnancy and taking control of this situation. x

Gosh! Went downstairs to get the post this morning and there was a letter from my GP apologising...although he was hinting that I had misunderstood. How can I misunderstand when someone says to me 'early scans are not available in this area and so here is a leaflet for a private scanning centre should you wish to pay for a scan'. My 20 week has been arranged by the surgery automatically so why wasn't my early one. Anyway, the GP enclosed a cheque for the sum I coughed up for the scan so that goes some way towards making me feel better! I still think that I am going to ask to change to hospital care rather than community care!

Hey that's good news. It's the least you deserve. Don't be worried about changing to hospital based care, do whatever makes you happy. :thumbsup: xxx

Originally posted by Babooshka
Gosh! Went downstairs to get the post this morning and there was a letter from my GP apologising...although he was hinting that I had misunderstood. How can I misunderstand when someone says to me 'early scans are not available in this area and so here is a leaflet for a private scanning centre should you wish to pay for a scan'. My 20 week has been arranged by the surgery automatically so why wasn't my early one. Anyway, the GP enclosed a cheque for the sum I coughed up for the scan so that goes some way towards making me feel better! I still think that I am going to ask to change to hospital care rather than community care!

they must have been clearly in the wrong to cough up $$$ so easily.

Do you feel that there are advantages to hospital-based care? For some reason the midwife at the doctor's was very negative about it. I have to admit, I am finding this whole experience very daunting and not at all as caring as I imagined it would be.

I suppose that it depends on what facilities, services & personnel are available.
Here in Sheffield I think that we are lucky to have a very good resource at The Jessops hospital.

All our pre-natal support has been hospital based and post-natal has been GP/Health Centre based.

Having said that, we have come across possibly the worst midwife in the world who should not be employed and also possibly the best midwife in the world who must have been an angel in another life!

Originally posted by Babooshka
Do you feel that there are advantages to hospital-based care? For some reason the midwife at the doctor's was very negative about it. I have to admit, I am finding this whole experience very daunting and not at all as caring as I imagined it would be.

You are right. I imagined the care you would receive would be better than it is in reality.

I preferred the hospital based care myself. If anything ever cropped up in a check-up, you are there in the right place. More organised, you see a midwife when you expect to see one. Much better I found. The midwives in the community are clearly stretched beyond their capabilities and struggle to get round everyone I feel.

Well, I am now to receive antenatal hospital-based care. I saw my community care midwife one more time (who had to take more blood because another midwife in the surgery did not take enough for all the tests that I should have had) and she told me that she only found out 2 days before that she was now in a position to offer Dating Scans.

After a lengthy chat with the senior midwife at the hospital this morning, I have been told that
a) yes I should have been offered the early scan

b) I should have had a blood test as soon as I first met the midwife, and not only at 16 weeks

c) there is a major investigation underway in to my surgery and in particular the level of antenatal care that my midwife is offering. Apparently, I am not the only person to have changed to hospital-based care, and the senior midwife knew exactly about whom I was speaking.

So, if in any doubt...SPEAK UP and get to the hospital. I can not understand for the life of me why my midwife would want to lie to anyone. The doctor is pathetic too.

Well done for taking control and for voicing your concerns. You were quite right.

Abd here's hoping the rest of your pregnancy will now be stress-free and that the hospital will be a far better option for you.

Weird - was just thinking about you and this thread and suddenly there it was!

xxx

There must be a psychic connection!!!