NHS Midwife story

[Zebra 10]

It's not my job to make the the experience all golden and glowing, I'm here to keep an eye that people aren't abusing each other and that the area is kept tidy and so on.

I don't have a personal agenda about this, it relates to birth so it's relevant to this section of the forum regardless of how negative it is.

It's a shame that someone coming close to birth felt unhappy about it but as others have pointed out, it isn't the only experience possible and frankly since it's available in the national press it's not like I've unearthed some great a gruesome secret.

 

We've got plenty of areas on parenting which are negative, like the thread about babies fingers being chopped off because of certain types of prams. that's pretty hideous but it's useful to know and it's something we can all discuss as parents.

 

Unfortunately my personal experience of Jessops was only good until an hour after the c'section, from that point it totally fell apart and became pretty much as the midwife described in the article but not everyone has that same experience.

 

I frequently post articles I read in the papers, it gives others access to the same articles sometimes and gives us all chance to look at and at times discuss current issues, which is a good thing.

[bluecanary 13]

My intention wasn't to start a witch hunt against you Zebra. Put my slightly snappy down to all the antenatal hormones and prebirth anxiety!

 

The article you posted was an interesting perspective - I just hope it's not typical of midwifery in the UK,or more specifically in Sheffield....

 

Incidentally, I've just returned from being monitored there and my impression was that they were busy (in fact, some poor woman was practically giving birth in the corridor as she arrived late in labour!), but everything was efficient and well controlled, and more importantly, I felt well looked after. Hopefully this was the norm rather than the account that was posted at the start of this thread!

[Zebra 10]

No worries bluecanary but I appreciate you coming back to say so.

 

One of the best things to take from the article and from the thread is that the more relaxed and in control you are, the shorter and easier the birth - generally. So, keeping that in mind and using olliek's tips too you'll be fine.

 

And when it does happen - best of luck for it being smooth and easy!

[cosywolf 10]

My second nbirth experience, with a complicated situation, last September, was full of concerned, helpful, and efficient people who were determined that the best for both of us what what we got.

I'd be lying if I said it was absolutely perfect in all ways...but where it counts, I think they did a great job, and I think the majority of you about to give birth will be fine and very well looked after.

 

On the other hand, I had a traumatic time with the first child, and some issues that could do with being improved with both experiences. There definitely are NOT enough midwives, and Jessops is constantly over capacity in all areas from what I can tell. Nothing good can come of sweeping this under the carpet, so it is absolutely to the point to highlight where all is not going as it should. Sometimes those stories will be extreme. Should we ignore them, hodgepodge, because they make you feel uncomfortable?

[Ju-Ju 10]

Thanks Zebra for posting this. My childbirth days are long behind me now, but I remember my first birth as being traumatic and it took me a long time to recover from. My second child came along so much easier. There are positive stories and negative stories always, but I think its really important that information about poor services get out in the open and as a first time mother, I wasn't in a position to evaluate the care I had or to complain about it at the time. It was only months later that I looked back and had questions I needed answering. I think it really helps for birthing partners to be really well-informed so that they can feel confident about raising concerns at the time - too often, I feel that I accept poor quality service and should complain more. I think the midwives in Sheffield have some kind of monitoring service in place where they actively seek women's views of their experiences - is this still going?

[Zebra 10]

As far as I know Ju-Ju it is and occasionally we get a post on here inviting people along.

 

I think you're right about highlighting it for birth partners, it's absolutely crucial in some cases to have someone fighting your corner, especially if you're in pain or otherwise busy or possibly addled with drugs.

[doodle 10]

I had a very bad experience on my first birth. Waited an hour before I was even seen after getting to the hospital. In fact, some of my birth reads like the script above. The aftercare after was just as bad and it's my opinion that my daughter was re-admitted at 3 days in to the hospital because of the lack of help and advice regarding breast feeding. My experience was at Derby Hospital and I did go and make a complaint about the care that I received during and after the birth.

 

Unfortunately not every birth goes well. On the other hand, some of my friends had excellent care during their birth experience and have no compliants what so ever. I think it is right that we are made aware of this, as we need to do something about it, otherwise it will get worse.

[sosborne 10]

I gave birth to my baby girl back in April this year.

I arrived at Jessops at 1am and gave birth at 6pm that night.

 

The first midwife I had was fantastic and never left my room. I had a fairly straightforward labour. My midwife then finished her shift and I got another one who again never left my room.

 

Couldnt have asked for an more. I was never left alone in labour and actually had quite a laugh with her.

 

Although when i got transferred onto the ward they didn't really want to know and like others have said there was no help at all with breastfeeding.

 

It's not all bad.

[Strix 11]

So why is the breastfeeding help so bad?

 

We've just received a letter in a Christmas card telling us that the paediatric nutritionist we know is a 'volunteer breast feeding councellor', but she's in Leeds. Does this just mean that there are no volunteers in Sheffield, or that the NHS in Sheffield doesn't want these people getting underfoot on the wards?

[jellybellybean 10]

I found strix if you really demanded help with breastfeeding it was available in Jessops although it was mainly from the support workers not the midwives. I don't know where in sheffield you are but i live in woodhouse and there is a lovely breastfeeding support worker who works alongside the team of health visitors. I personally never used her but i know people who have and she's visited them at home or seen them in baby clinic. She also runs a breastfeeding cafe every week like most children's centres now do.

 

I think once discarged the breastfeeding support may be better than that given in the hospital if you're prepared to seek it out and ask for it.

[doodle 10]

(Sorry I realised this was long after I typed it!)

 

I chose my Hospital (Derby City over Nottingham ones) because they were under a baby friendly initiative - basically supposedly better equipped to help Mum's breastfeed and have a proper strategy in place. However, despite having 2 breast feeding advisers in the hospital, not once did I see them, despite asking. Only the support workers would help with breast feeding - if they had time. The advice was so conflicting each time that my head was whirring at what I was supposed to do. They make it sound so technical and hard.

 

For the 3 nights I was in the hospital, my daughter cried each and every night from 11 till morning. I had no sleep, I had no help and wasn't helped to try and work out what the problem was. I tried feeding, trying nappy changing. Nothing worked.

 

After one night out of the hospital. The midwife came and weighed by daughter and said she had lost 15% of her body weight and I needed to go and see the Breast Feeding Advisor as that was too much to drop. Great I thought, finally I could get some help. Well, the breast feeding advisor told me to express milk so that I could feed it in a bottle and know how much I was giving her. How do you express? basically according to the breast feeder it's a gush gush gush. That was exactly how she told me to do it. No instructions, just gush.

 

The breast feeding advisor then sent us to the Children's A&E because she had a temp. She was admitted for 3 nights, put on antibiotics, tested for all sorts, including meningitis. I was also told to feed a strict amount of milk on a 4 hour basis, express as much as possible and top up with formula. All the tests came back negative and my daughter gained weight. It was put down to 'failure to thrive'. So basically my daughter wasn't feeding correctly from me, and I do think that this should have been spotted on the postnatal ward and I also think her dramatic weight drop should have been noticed before I was discharged from the ward.

 

Interestingly, my daughter has never cried all night since the second night in the children's ward. So I do believe she was trying to tell me she was starving and I just wasn't able to feed her correctly.

 

Please remember my experience was in Derby and I have no experience of Jessops, which might be completely different.

[Strix 11]

I'm really sorry to hear you had such a bad time of it Doodle. It does make you wonder doesn't it? With all these 'targets' and suchlike they have, and cost cutting exercises, you'd think they'd be able to figure out that 'prevention' is better than 'cure' - practically and financially!

 

Why do I keep reading advice about Jessops which all seems to suggest that you have to DEMAND everything from them to get the kind of service you'd think would be available to everybody