Hi everyone! Anyone else due in July next year? It's very early days for me, haven't even had my first midwife appointment yet, but would be great to be able to share the journey with some of you 
Please or to access all these features
Please
or
to access all these features
Get updates on how your baby develops, your body changes, and what you can expect during each week of your pregnancy by signing up to the Mumsnet Pregnancy Newsletters.
Birth clubs
July 2021 Babies!
26 replies
MedhaG · 24/11/2020 14:44
OP posts:
MedhaG ·
25/11/2020 09:13
Congratulations to you too! So sorry to hear about your miscarriage earlier this year, I can understand how that would make you more anxious, but I'm glad you've got some reassurance from your tarot session!
I've told my parents, although my husband has told his Mum but not his Dad, as he feels his dad can't keep a secret 
Perhaps you could just say you're having a bit of a detox?
The thing I'm stressing about at the moment is which hospital to choose. I live in central London and all I can see are horror stories about the maternity units here. & private costs £10k and up! Getting super anxious about it, wondering if I should just go have the baby in a smaller town where my parents live (Swindon).
Medha x
OP posts:
cassiacolling ·
29/11/2020 08:17
Hi there. I'm due late July, so really early days. I had an ectopic pregnancy around 4 months ago and had to go for surgery to remove it... I recovered very well emotionally and physically though! It's more common than we think...
But of course now I'm anxious about something going wrong this time again...it's my first one.
That's why I did a 4 weeks scan and will do another one on the 6th week. I'll do it through the NHS but I was looking for some private ones just in case and they don't cost more than £60. If you are worried and anxious it may be woth doing it privately.
Anyone from East London here? It would be great to get recommendations on hospitals.
Thanks all and good luck to everyone 
Yui7 ·
01/12/2020 11:50
This reply has been deleted
Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.
RoyalMami ·
20/12/2020 14:11
Congratulations @MedhaG and everyone.
I gave birth at UCLH in July and had to use the Neonatal service as well. I had a very mixed experience and at some point, i was on the phone asking my dad to come and get me as i was fed up.
Some doctor's won't listen to you and would do whatever they want regarding your care . . .
I was having a reaction to an antibiotic they gave me and one particular doctor they kept bringing to check me on the ward wouldn't accept i was reacting to the drug as it was a delayed reaction (despite this been clearly stated on the drug's leaflet which they don't give you to read on the ward, my dad had to read the leaflet online to determine what was happening). The doctor kept insisting i was having a migraine 
which was untrue as my symptoms included visible uncontrollable fits (never had this before taking this drug), raised BP, banking out for periods of time etc.
Some doctor's are superb and would listen to you and with this information make excellent recommendations. In the end i knew who to request for.
I also had a mixed midwifery experience. To some you're just a number. One gave me the wrong medicine (the same antibiotic i had reacted to, which was no longer on my drug chart) and she wouldn't even apologise instead she became boistrous and i was removed from under her care (i was in the hospital for ages).
As we're in cubicles, you can hear other women's interactions with the medical staff and let's just say i was one of the lucky ones.
In one instance, they were refusing to induce a woman who herself kept telling them she's had 4 other babies and had to be induced every time as she always goes over 40wks but they wouldn't listen to her. It was during one of the meetings i had with a senior staff that i raised my concern for her and after the meeting, she was induced.
My Neonatal experience was even more alarming.
For example, i was in the room with my baby who was due to be fed at 12:30pm in this particular day. As i had a c-section i was struggling to be present always but on this day, i arrived just after 11am.
At 12:35pm i went on to ask when he would be fed and the nurse looking after their nursery said he had been fed and i asked at what time, she said 12pm.
I went back to sit down as i was too shocked to continue talking without it seeming like i was angry. After re-examining, i went back and told her i'd been in the room much earlier and my baby was yet to be fed. Only then did she say ooh, actually i'm just covering breaks.
So, if i hadn't asked, my baby's feed would have been missed and i just couldn't stop wondering if this had happened before and how many times.
So long story short, UCLH definitely consist of state of the art maternity suites but it's not the building that counts, it's the staff with whom you'll be entrusting your life and that of your baby.
They were trying to keep my baby in until his due date which meant we would have been in there for 2 months but i worked extra hard to get him out of there. In the end we spent 20 days in total. They tried to come up with so many excuses but i stood on the ground of their carelessness which i had seen too many times (dried up poo on baby as his pampers hadn't been changed for several hours (eventually giving him bleeding rashes), rough handling him, ignoring him crying but running to his side as soon as they see me coming (i'm very observant and his nursery was just to the left of the entrance) and these are the lighter things i can share, there are so many things i just want to forget).
The postnatal care wasn't that great either. I was in more pain than the women in the ward and paracetamol tablets were not working for me only IV drips. I explained severally this might be due to my IBS which meant the tablets were not been absorbed effectively but i was ignored. They brought one of the good doctors to persuade me to go home but once he heard me out, he said and i quote "i'm not going to ask you to go home as your pain might be due to other medical reasons from what you've explained to me. We'll draw up bloods and wait for the results to determine our next steps." I also said my iron level needs to have improved before they discharge me. This was all agreed to.
24 hours later, my bloods showed the reason for my pain and it was addressed but with the new doctor (not the same person i saw previously) telling me to go home anyway. Turned out there was an infection and for 6 days my cry of pain was ignored and dismissed and the antibiotic i was supposed to have been taking after the surgery was never given because other women leave the ward within 4 days post surgery. I also enquired about my iron which i was told had improved.
I was discharged with antibiotics, however there was no improvement after finishing the course. It took speaking to the health visitor who was appalled by everything, to tell me specifically what to ask for from my GP. Turned out i was right and my IBS was affecting my body absorbing the tablets i had been taking and we just needed to bypass my stomach altogether. I was later issued paracetamol pessaries by my GP and i kid you not, i felt relieve within 5 minutes of use. It was like a magic potion.
On the topic of iron, turned out they'd lied to me when they said there was an improvement. In regards to my iron, the doctor said it had improved.Turned out they lied. I got home to extreme fatigue.
I was so tired it was a lot of work to breath, speak, move etc, yet i needed to pump every three hours and make my way to see my baby at the hospital everyday and care for him, before returning home. In fact iron was non existent in my blood.
On my home one day form seeing my baby at the hospital, i received a call and the nurse was all cheerful trying to see how i was getting on after my transfusion. What transfusion i asked. Turned out they had updated the system to say they had given me an iron transfusion which never happened.
Long story short, i got the transfusion the next day.
So, although i would still recommend the hospital, please be very observant of the care you receive. Once you notice something isn't right or someone isn't listening to you, speak up. I gave several chances saying we're humans but life is too sacred for us to be giving chances to supposed professionals who are very good at lying and covering their tracks when they make mistakes. May we not become part of negative hospital statistics.
My most sincere advice would be to listen to your body and keep a diary if you ever need to stay in the ward even during your postnatal care.
I wish you all the best x
RoyalMami ·
23/12/2020 11:37
@CamVelucci congratulations 
And yes you're right, it all falls on the care of those who attend to us!
I wish you all the best x
Don’t want to miss threads like this?
Weekly
Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!
Log in to update your newsletter preferences.
You've subscribed!
MelissaAnn92 ·
24/01/2021 21:48
How’s everyone doing?
I found out we were expecting a little boy. Due date 1st July but c section approx ten days before.
Ive also contracted covid so currently in isolation so super worried 
Xxx
Please create an account
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.