Got letter for ante-natal appointment today although had missed miscarriage in november

[JennyJW]

Just can't believe that I got appointment for ante-natal visit today although I had a missed miscarriage in November. I had the erpc done at one hospital and then the follow up scan at the hospital that sent the letter. I thought they would have known by now not to contact me. Especially as I had phoned up to cancel my 20 week scan and told them what had happened. It just made me feel quite sad today.

[just1moreplease]

jen sorry for your loss.

this happened to me after mc 3. i got back from having scan to confirm all 'products' [shudders] were gone to find a note from midwife saying sorry i missed you and a letter confirming her appt for that day.

worst part is that when i called to inform them that i wouldnt be needing any appts the lady just said 'why?' when i told her i had mc'd she just said 'fine'

hope you are looking after yourself jen.

[Hopefully]

That's just crap. Maybe if you feel up to it at some point you could write a letter in the hope that they won't repeat the mistake with anyone else?

Take care

[hoops997]

same sort of thing happened to me when I had to phone to cancel my first midwife appointment with my MMC, the receptionist asked me if I would like to re-book another one at a later time......I couldn't believe it!!

[kissmummy]

i've had four miscarriages and this has happened to me every single time
i find it totally disgraceful. with my fourth pregnancy, i told the GP i did not want to inform maternity services until i was sure the pregnancy was going well because i could not face going through the whole misery of undoing all the ante natal appointments again. After we got a heartbeat the GP persuaded me to let her sign me up for all the antenatal care etc. unfortunately i lost the pregnancy shortly after - and guess what? the day i got back from my ERPC, i found a "congratulations on your pregnancy" booklet waiting for me in the post - from the very same unit that had been dealing with my failed pregnancy for the previous two weeks . it's absolutely unacceptable. how hard can it be for GPs and early pregnancy units to share information?

[CMOTdibbler]

It's total crap isn't it. If you feel up to it, please, please do a formal complaint letter via PALs to tell the hospital management about this - that way things do change.

[bonkerz]

i remember when i had my second MC and had an ERPC at hospital in Jan 2005. I went to docs in March 2005 because i had a stomach bug and kept being sick. GP said he wanted to check my tummy which i thought was normal as my stomach was poorly so i laid down and GP had a feel then said he was concerned i wasnt bigger considering i was supposed to be 5 months pregnant! i started crying and told him i had miscarried in Jan and he didnt even apologise! havent been back to that doc since.

completely unacceptable!

[just1moreplease]

kiss it should be standard practice for gp, epu etc to share info. it cant be that hard surely?!

[JennyJW]

So this seems to be happening quite alot. I will deffinatley complain. I suppose I have to call the hospital anyway as they want me to let them now if I can't make the appointment. Thanks for replying.

[SE13Mummy]

My GP never found out about my most recent pregnancy until I registered my baby at the surgery! I'd had three failed pregnancies and was under a wonderful obstetrician who asked me to e-mail her if/when I became pregnant again. I did everything through her and didn't even get referred to the hospital midwives until well after 13 weeks because I'd had the community midwives etc. ring up when I'd missed appointments after miscarriages/ectopic. After the ectopic a health visitor friend of mine offered to go into the computer system and cancel everything for me because she knew how upset I'd been the time before.

[kissmummy]

for what it's worth i have raised this at the highest level - ie, directly with the Secretary of State for Health Andy Burnham. I know him through my job. when I last spoke to him he said he and the department of health were aware of this issue and indicated that they were hoping to do something about it, and about the crap treatment of miscarriage patients by the NHS generally, in response to the Mumsnet campaign. I will try to get an update. I sense that the department is so hopelessly overstretched that it may have fallen by the wayside

[tigger15]

I thought it was just me.

Mmc confirmed at 10-11 weeks. MW says she'll sort out cancelling of my appointments. 1 week later I receive an invitation to attend a GTT. I find this amusing rather than offensive because I am type 1 diabetic. There is no way I can get GD. So being a good person not wanting to waste NHS money I call up to explain that I will not be attending because I've had a mc and could they make sure all the other appointments are cancelled e.g. foetal heart scan, retinopathy. Profuse apologies and says she will do so.

I turn up 2 weeks later to have it confirmed that mc has completed and guess what - they've cancelled that appointment too. So I burst into tears and get seen that way.

It hadn't gone. ERPC scheduled for 3 days later.

All done.

A month later I receive a call from a MW "why haven't you attended ante-natal appointments since June?" I tell her why, more profuse apologies and she promises to amend details on system which should be there anway as it's all in the same hospital.

Another month later another call same question. Same response.

I will write a letter of complaint at some point along with a whole load more bits that went wrong.

My GP on the other hand was wonderful. Being high risk I don't usually have anything to do with them when pg other than prescriptions. After he was sent the letter from the hospital confirming the miscarriage he left me a sympathetic message on my phone with his mobile no offering counselling and anything else I wanted in terms of prescriptions and was just really nice.

[Tads]

How awful!!! I really hope you write and complain about this. There's no excuse for it.

I think health professionals really do need to re-think how they handle pregnancy loss. I know we are all different in terms of how we cope with grief, but a little tact wouldn't go amiss. The day after I was told I had a blighted ovum my oh-so-sensitive doctor called me to make sure I was aware that there had never been a baby in the first place. Oddly enough, I think this was her way of trying to comfort me about the fact that the loss wasn't my fault, but it was completely the wrong thing for me to hear at the time. It made me feel as though I'd lied to everyone I told I had been pregnant. Thankfully, she at least contacted my midwife for me. The process should be automatic so you don't have to do anything but it would seem from all these posts that this often isn't the case.