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CyanaraSamba No medical/nursing professional reading your notes would mistake 'spontaneous abortion' for anything other than a miscarriage. It is solely a medical term and has no moral/emotional value or judgement attached to it.

She didn't mean your pants were the size of a 50p but rather that was the size of the wet patch. As for the rest, you need to firmly ask how they arrived at these measurements without measuring you unless they used fundal heights from your last ante natal visit based on your dates? And they shouldn't have done this....

Yep I've had this too. Apparently I'm happy for vbac.

Am I FU&K

I'd spent 30mins explaining the shite treatment as well.

I've telephoned consultat but not heard anything yet. Have anointed notes too.

My community midwife wrote that I was well on my notes as I sat down and hadn't even opened my mouth! (and I wasn't feeling that great either!)

On my first night in hospital with DC3 I had been up all night as you are , as she wouldn't settle just want cuddled and would cry every time she was put in her little glass cot next to me. I was shattered , at 4.30 am finally got her to sleep in the cot for 2 secs for the midwife to loudly open the curtain and wake her up (fair enough she was just doing her rounds it is her job) she asked me how I was doing and had the baby settled, I answered No -I hadnt managed to get any sleep yet but hey ho sort of thing! She finished , wrote up her notes and left.
Next morning I had a nosey at my notes I can't remember the exact wording but she had basically written " mum and baby both well rested and getting sleep through the night" ????

Minor errors and subjective notes are one thing but some of these seem to be terrible. I never had a problem with midwives they were great in my experience but after being admitted after delivering baby with uterine infection a doctor wrote I was having my period and no infection despite fever shakes pain and ultrasound also blood work came back with raised white blood cells = infection
I took this up with PALS patient and liaison service in hospital the senior midwives and head consultant and that doctor is only to seer in an emergency situation after a formal complaint - there were other things than just that and bad care has caused complications in this pregnancy.

I would advise you speak to the senior midwife about your concerns!

I am so sad reading these stories. I am also not remotely surprised.

My postnatal care was dire. Each morning the midwife would come in and fill out a tick box chart and stick it into my notes. Things like is patient in pain, feeling depressed, feeling exhausted, etc. she ticked "NO" against all of them. Now, if she'd actually ASKED me how I was feeling, the answer would not have been no. I was a physical and emotional wreck, feeling helpless and neglected, and I went on to develop PND. I totally blame the "care" I received for that. I'm still angry about it 14 months later.

Oh I forgot that like NAR I was told I wasn't in proper labour so my DH was set home as I lay in the ward crying from the contractions. DH was terribly upset and 10 mins after he left, the midwife monitoring me said "wow, these contractions are measuring off the scale!"

Volume - I've had three dcs and I don't remember any errors in my notes. I had good care in all my labours with caring staff who listened to me. The only error I endured in three pregnancies came from the community midwife. Trying to do a vaginal swab (and show off to the student about how quickly and casually she could do it) she missed my vagina (How??? - it was my third child and she was a MIDWIFE!!!) and tried to swab my urethra. Which hurt. A LOT.

After that she cheerily said she would be doing her couple of weeks practicing within the hospital at the time I was due to deliver. 'Won't it be nice if I get to deliver your baby' she said. Coward that I am I agreed whilst thinking 'No way are you coming anywhere near me!'

This thread is so depressing to read.

My trace went missing within hours. Midwife was a bitch. Must have realised she was really incompetent and it was a pure miracle that my DC survived and that was quite possibly because I got to see a sonographer who knew what they were doing and actually cared.

That's not really to do with notes in general, but the errors in my notes are part of why I feel like that. It just adds to the shambolic care I feel I received in labour.

I don't really want to do it again.

If I knew I would have someone available to me, monitoring me and the baby, helping if help was needed, if I knew someone would listen to me, if I knew I could have some painkillers if I wanted some, if I knew I would feel safe... That would be different.
As it is, I don't trust that I can rely on any of those things.

When I was tested to see if I was rhesus negative, they printed off someone else's notes at my 12 week appointment and stuck them in my green notes for the Anti D injection later on in the pregnancy.

From her name, she was a different race to me and her name looks and sounds nothing like mine. Completely different NHS numbers. She was eleven years older than me. So not a mix up that you would think would slip through.

The crux of it is that she was a completely different blood group and if I hadn't read my notes, if I had had an accident needing a blood transfusion, urgh, it doesn't bear thinking about.

It took them SIXTEEN weeks to give me the correct paperwork.

At my eight week booking in appointment they gave me some paperwork relating to a four year old boy called Samuel.

When I had DS, the midwife wrote in my notes that I was lying about "supposedly" feeding the baby in the middle of the night.

The same midwife refused to tell me the name of my medication, telling me to call it "the little orange tablet" as the name was probably too difficult for me to remember. I had to insist she tell me - it was diclofenac, how difficult is that?! I have an A Level in Chemistry ffs, so its not the toughest name to remember.

Oh, I have such confidence in the NHS.

My notes say normal delivery 2 hrs no problems. I was in for 2 days!

Oh my fav was the consultant that wrote "I'm not feeling well so have asked lisad123 consultant to return to carry out ECS", which is why dd1 nearly died. What it was was that the consultant didn't agree with my medical choices

with my first I had:

- hospital notes in a different name, same birthdate similar name (handheld notes were correct)
- mw invented an asthma attack (didn't have one in hosp) as reason to refuse gas&air
- only one pph was recorded, the one I had on the ward was not mentioned
- midwife dissapeared for an hour (was induced on a drip so someone should be there at all times) and during that time apparently I asked for an epidural (I didn't)
- not all meds I received were recorded

second time I corrected/added with a red pen (date+signed) and after a couple of apts everything was recorded correctly.

My mw guessed my baby belly size and so failed to notice that I had placental failure and loss of waters (she told me the wet knickers was normal)! Dd1 nearly died and I ended up with ECS.

Sorry, that wasn't really about notes, I've never written all that down before

My dd is almost 3 now, and has some health problems, but on the whole she is very, very lucky. Thanks for asking!

These stories are shocking

I didn't see my notes the second time around. I dread to think what the MWs had put since one gave me a sweep without my permission and another shrugged off my tears and worries that I couldn't bond with my DD2 with a brisk 'well, you look fine to me'.

My MW insisted on writing up a previous miscarriage as a "spontaneous abortion". This may have been technically correct terminology but I'd rather not have had it on my notes.

You do wonder why some people stay in a profession they are surrounded by people they clearly despise.
The implications for mistakes I guess are so serious that covering them up seems the only option, it puts me right off attending a hospital unless my head was hanging off.

ellmum my 3rd baby was born in the hospital waiting area, after no monitoring at all, even though I had been induced.

The midwifes had called security to remove my husband from the ward when he refused to go home because visiting time was over. The midwifes had been insistant that I was not in labour and just thought I was. I gave birth on the floor with just my husband there. Even when my husband had screamed down the corridor that the head was coming out, he said a midwife looked out of the staffroom door and just went back in. A midwife coming into the hospital ready to start her shift, took me in a wheelchair up to the labour ward, where they insisted I signed a disclaimer which said I had an unexpected quick labour (it had actually been 9.5 hours since I first said I was definately in labour) before they would cut the cord and deliver the placenta.

My HV at the time was horrified when I told her and advised me to put in a formal complaint, but I am ashamed to admit I didn't. I just wanted to put the whole thing behind me and enjoy my baby.

Ultimately I was readmitted with very serious complications which would have been avoided had I been checked!

Lots of lies on my notes too.

Mine lied on my notes several of them said they'd checked my stitches and no one did.

They put on there that I was offered ice too for it and declined! I would have loved some ice.

In reality no one had time to give me any help apart from one charmer who complained my cubicle was untidy when I dropped my bag and was unable to pick it up.

@ SouthernComforts!