feedback on your experience of maternity care

[Cutelittlecatlover]

A group of mums and midwives are putting pressure on the government to improve maternity services and they need to know about women's experiences. Please fill in this survey to help them fight for better care!

www.thebirthiwant.org.uk/yourexperience

[Flisspaps]

Done. I shall go back and fill it in again later for DDs birth!

[Cutelittlecatlover]

Thanks Fliss, I've just done it again for ds' birth.

[Jules125]

I looked at this, but its really all about care for low risk women having normal pregnancies. All the experts consulted were around midwifery.

I'm not trying to be critical (I agree these issues are important) but it overlooks many things that are most important to those with high risk pregnancies like me (obstetric clinics, level of consultant involvement on labour wards etc). I didn't complete because there was nowhere to comment on those types of issues and concerns.

[Portlyposh]

Did it but as Jules said, it's v v badly worded and I had to put N/A for lots of it as was consultant led from start.

[Putthatbookdown]

Yes none of these surveys are any good unless it includes higher risk cases No good just asking about the straighforward ones

[Putthatbookdown]

Yes none of these surveys are any good unless it includes higher risk cases No good just asking about the straighforward ones

[Ushy]

Finding out what women want is a good idea but this is worded just to support the midwife lobby, it doesn't address the fact that lots of women face obstetric problems so I too feel I can't sign it.

Look at this from the site :

"According to the Royal College of Midwives 96% of births happen in hospital. This more medicalised way of giving birth, with surgeons and anaesthetists on hand, fear of litigation and induction of labour over 42 weeks have combined to see increasing c-sections."

Personally I was very glad to have both a csection and an epidural. I appreciated having anaesthetists and surgeons on hand - and I have done it the 'natural' way as well so know what I am comparing it with.

'Fear of Litigation' increasing caesareans? Well, personally I would much rather have a doctor who dared to ignore the caesarean section 'targets' and offer a caesarean if my baby was at risk.

There are staffing problems in maternity across the board - doctors, midwives, anaesthetists and certainly SCBU cots.

A more broadbased survey with fewer leading questions designed to strengthen the case if the vocal midwifery lobby would be very welcome.

[Ushy]

Sorry, now I've posted, I think that sounds a bit negative.

Didn't mean it to be because the idea is good.

I just think it would have been better if the person who started it had not gone off and talked to a bunch of midwives and had stuck to chatting to other mums.

[bansku]

JULES125: most pregannacies are low risk and from my experience the consultant led wards/clinics/services have been really good. It is another story with midwife leds ones.

My last pregnancy was low-risk preganancy but I used several consultant led services like Fetal medicine unit,

[ArtJSam]

Thanks Cutelittlecatlover for your original post and thank you for all those that have followed. You are right Ushy, this campaign is for improved midwifery care and that is its focus.

As a mum who has had 3 very different births I felt the need to set it up because at the moment the debate is being run by midwives and it's time for mums to add their voices, after all thousands of mums do use midwifery services every year.

It is true that some mothers are unable to be under the care of midwives because they have higher risk pregnancies and I hold my hands up, for those mums this campaign is not so relevant.
I am just a mum who has been affected by her experiences to the extent that I wanted to do something about it. I hope that there will be a mum such as Portlyposh or Ushy who feel strongly enough about doing something for higher risk mums.
And for the record, I would never suggest that a c-section shouldn't take place if it was in the best interests of mum and baby. That's just ludicrous

I look forward to supporting the campaign for higher risk mums when it is born

[anyadvice01]

This survery assumes the baby survives. It would have been good if there had been a section on pregnancy outcome.
My baby died when I was 37 weeks pregnant with her. I only saw a midwife four times during my pregnancy, despite claims we are supposed to see one at least once a month. The care is disgraceful, and in my experience is influenced too muich by the "childbirth is natural, nothing bad can ever happen if something is natural" brigade and forgets that throughout history, and even in the 21st century outside of the western world pregnancy is highly dangerous and still is one of the biggest killers of women. We have wonderful techonology and skilled medical professionals in the UK, where are people trying to bar women from using these?

[SarryB]

Sorry to hear about your wee girl anyadvice.

I've filled in the survey - I think one of the biggest problems is the conflicting advice. Also, little to no info about formula/combination feeding.