To think a lot of midwives are.. just not very good?

The midwives i had were all really caring. They were understaffed though, especially on the postnatal ward.

The only problem i had was not being allowed to hold dc4 when he was born, they gave him to dh who was sat behind me and i couldn't see him. Dh said that when i spoke to him, ds was turning his head, as if he was recognising my voice and trying to find me, which breaks my heart a bit as i couldn't go to him. When they took him to nicu about 45 minutes after birth i asked to hold him and i got a quick cuddle but it wasn't the same as getting skin to skin straight away like i did with my vaginal births.

There have been loads of issues with maternal health services in the NHS for years and midwives are part of the problem no matter how you may wish to deny it. Look at the vote and the stories here. There are other terrible stories elsewhere.
www.reddit.com/r/doctorsUK/comments/1j27hu5/what_have_i_just_read_shockingly_bad_maternity/

I can see why you feel like that. I had good care for my first. For my second, I wanted a water birth and it was in my birth plan ( does anyone ever read them?). They gave me some BS about not possible because my waters had broken 16 hours before. They put me in an office to labour and left me to it. Once I was in the delivery suite it was ok. In the maternity ward there was no real care. Loud, jarring environment and staff nowhere to be seen.

On the whole a bad experience with midwives for me for my only child (and one of the reasons they are remaining an only!).

I was due in for induction due to waters breaking with no labour, but got meconium about 18 hours in. First midwife actually said to me 'I've not had a day off in over a week and you're my 3rd lady when I should only have one'.. brilliant, why she's telling a scared first timer this I do not know. Then plonked in the waiting room as the triage room was needed for labour, before being given a bed on the induction ward. Induction midwife was also useless, dismissive of me as a first time mum, and either unaware or didn't seem to care I was clearly in transition after going from 2cm to baby in < 3 hours. After vomiting exorcist style on the shared induction ward (bye bye dignity - didn't think that's how I'd lose it in the grand scheme of things) I was finally offered a bed on labour ward. This midwife was more obsessed with my paperwork and keeping me on my back for the monitoring than me telling her I was pushing - and baby was born 25 minutes after moving wards. Shift change, hooray, finally a decent midwife (they exist, even if rare) who was an absolute gem and let me break a few of her fingers while the most painful part of the whole process was underway (doctors elbow deep trying to stitch so I could avoid theatre for major PPH) - she also joined in my annoyance when whoever was trying to jam a needle into my artery to get a blood gas, while I was also being worn like a glove, exclaimed 'i'll have to do it again as SHE writhed around in pain worse than childbirth moved'.

In summary, based on my singular experience 66.6% of midwives are awful but there are the 33.3% out there worth their weight in gold!

I agree. Most are utterly clueless and aggressively unscientific/anti-doctor, and a fair proportion are downright nasty and bullying.
I was two weeks overdue with my first pregnancy. The scan at 36 weeks showed a large baby, with a predicted weight at term of 9lbs. When I was overdue I tentatively asked the midwife if she thought I might not be going into labour because the baby was too large (head not engaged at 41 weeks). No, she snapped, scans were rubbish, this was a small baby — much like hers, she’d be amazed if he was more than 6 1/2 lbs.
She came round two days later after the inevitable c-section and sniffed vaguely in the direction of me and the 9 1/2lb baby who was trying to breastfeed.

Second baby, lost 3 litres of blood, transfusion etc. I was still in the high dependency unit and in pain when a midwife started bullying me about breastfeeding in the wrong position, before leaving nasty comments in my notes (which I have) about me refusing all help and advice about breastfeeding, insisting I knew better etc. I had fed my first baby until 18 months and did the same with the second…

So many others who misrecorded information or gave advice that was downright dangerous. One midwife couldn’t believe that my second baby was also large (scans again bang on) because she felt that the fundal height was measuring small. Another one couldn’t use an ear thermometer. One insisted that my waters had broken when I came in for an appointment after going swimming.

I do know a midwife, she is the most know it all individual I’ve ever met. There’s not a subject she thinks anyone can know more than her, this especially includes doctors. So I’m sure she is a nightmare at work.

Completely down to luck on the day who you get, which is hard. I have 4 babies and would say majority of the midwives were excellent, but I did come across a few who weren't very helpful.

Yes, same here, DS born 25 years ago, first baby. Treated me like I was an inconvenience the minute I arrived on the ward. Was given a bed that wasn’t made up and was told to go and get my own sheets and pillows off the bed in the side ward. Sent DH home and left me labouring slowly all night, water broke I was shouted at for making a mess on the floor. I dragged myself back and fore the loo in agony all night past the nurses station where they sat and chatted all night - not one asked me if I was ok.
morning came and I begged for pain relief, baby back to back, took all day to be taken to ward where I was almost delirious with pain by that point, soon became apparent I had a seriously stuck 9lb baby so went through a quick episiotomy and forceps birth to get him out as he became distressed.
He spent 5 days in SCBU where again I was treated like dirt, no help with anything, I was stitched from one end to the other and was just a total inconvenience. No help with breastfeeding and I was handed a howling baby that had been tube fed after 5 days and told to get on with feeding him or he’d be taken from me again. I didn’t have a drop of milk. Terrifying, nasty and vindictive women.
Eventually a HCA took pity on me and quietly had a word and said love, just bottle feed him and you can go home. So that’s what I did. Took me months to get over the whole thing.

For my first baby, I had amazing midwives (labour took a day and a half from.broken waters).
For my second one, the midwive I had really couldn't be bothered.

It really depends I suppose.

Which hospital please?

Same

Friends daughter qualified, loves being a midwife. Got a job at a hospital in the north west. She only lasted a few months. Said that it was a very dangerous hospital to have a baby in. She came home very upset. Luckily she was hired by her home health board and found her confidence again.

Midwives with my first were excellent, both through a very uneventful pregnancy and a very eventful labour. I will always say I had a hard delivery but a good one. The postnatal ones weren't great though.

2nd one was very different. I was induced due to waters breaking but no contractions and they kept changing the plan which heightened my anxiety after a difficult pregnancy. Then the epidural didn't work and they wouldn't believe me, I was in agony and exhausted and kept passing out when being asked to push, it was terrifying. Eventually had a forceps delivery, they wouldn't believe that I could feel everything, from when they cut me to get the forceps in, to when they stitched me up. I can still remember that feeling now, asking for a local anaesthetic and being refused. That was me done, DH was keen for a 3rd, I couldn't go through that again which he fully understood having been with me every step of the way.

@JackandSallySkellingtoni agree. However compassion fatigue is a real issue in the care profession and something I have experienced myself where you have to become hardened as the medical world is frankly brutal and unforgiving in terms of its care for staff. With both my labours, the majority of midwife’s were rude and frankly couldnt give a shit. I self discharged with my second as it was so bad. After listening to another hospital due to start another investigation into its terrible maternity services, sadly, I feel midwifery has lost its core values.

I got the 1 who almost killed me struck off, I reported her to the police aswell they actually wanted her prosecuted but the procurator fiscal (Scottish cps) said no still I like to think that being questioned by the police under caution gave her a few sleepless nights.
Im not normally that vindictive but I was left unable to have anymore dc due to her actions

I remember a young mother post natal who wouldn't get out of bed. Said she didn't feel well and was so tired. Eventually the nurse lost patience and pulled the covers back. There was so much blood. She was rushed off into theatre and thankfully did recover.

I don’t remember much tbh, I think most were good up until the birth, then the post natal ward was pretty dire. But the worst was with DD1. I was transferred by ambulance from the birthing centre to another hospital and the on-call midwife who was called in to travel with me just looked out of the ambulance window the whole way and completely ignored me!

My ones were really great....

Mixed reviews here!

The midwife I had for ds1 (30 years ago!) was incredible- she stayed well over her hours to ensure that I had continuous care all the way through (still feel guilty about that.) She was calm, kind and really knew her stuff.

Ds2, 12 years later- I think the midwife may have been fairly new to the job, tbh. She was not at all calming, telling me off because I was 'making noise and disturbing the other ladies' in the unit. An alarm went off as I was labouring and all of the staff left the room. She came back first and was very disapproving that I was still standing up. When I got on the bed she didn't do an exam, and when the rest of the staff returned there was an exclamation of surprise as baby was crowning- I gave birth shortly after.

However, both boys were born safe and well, so in the long run it doesn't matter, and hopefully the second midwife got better with experience.

I had CS births but was with my daughter for her two labours. Cannot fault her care . Community midwife in Brighton came in on her day off to deliver granddaughter and 2nd grandchild birth had midwife present and monitoring throughout. All went tits up at the actual birth and cannot fault the crash team .

One fabulous midwife. One sadist with no personal skills or joy in her job whatsoever. I suspect midwives need a career progression option (out of midwifery) as 40 years is too long to stay committed

65% of maternity units in Britain are rated not safe enough to give birth in by the CQC, and we spend more on a country on compensation for women who have traumatic births than we do on maternity care. Both those statistics should be cause for national outrage yet somehow they are not. Please check out this amazing campaign founded last year by women who had traumatic births: https://deliveringbetter.org/

That said I did have two amazing midwives for my first complicated birth. My second was born 13 minutes after getting to the hospital so there was barely time for midwives to get involved.

Mine failed to notice that I had a wound infection and a temperature over 40C :/. GP had to come to the house where I was shivering in 2 polo neck jumpers and a dressing gown.

Had my first son normally, so when the second was born five years later, the midwife seemed to think that nothing could possibly go wrong.
After 36 hours of labour, eventually a doctor came and ordered an immediate c-section. He then ordered the midwife into the corridor and yelled at her that they could have lost me and the baby, and had she never heard of a brow presentation?
I was fully dilated, but she hadn't checked for hours. My son was stuck fast as he weighed 10 pounds, and was facing the wrong way. Lucky that he was such a strong baby, as we could easily have lost him. I was completely exhausted, and recovering from the caesarian after such a gruelling labour was difficult.
I wanted a third child, but it took seven years to be able to face another birth. I was assured by my GP that the hospital was "so much better now", so I agreed to go there for a planned caesarean.
Unexpectedly had to be a general anaesthetic, due to their inability to get the spinal block in. This resulted in my daughter not breathing for six minutes, and being whisked off to special care.
When I was back on the ward, I kept trying to tell the nurses that I thought I was bleeding, but they said it was probably that my catheter was leaking (didn't check though). Only when they did my obs did they discover my b.p. was 40, and that I was haemorrhaging. Cue everyone running around like headless chickens to get blood and a pressure pump to push it into me as quickly as possible.
They did save my life, for which I was obviously grateful, but if someone had listened to me it would never had got that far.
My husband went three days later to arrange a vasectomy!
This was some years ago, and I really despair that maternity services have not improved, and in some areas seem even worse.

Had a bunch of amazing midwives for all 3 of my births.

DC1 two midwives with me the whole time. One was a student and she brushed my hair when she realised it was getting all birds nest! The post natal team so kind.

DC2 and 3 similar. Post natal team makes me feel tearful how tenderly I was cared for. Someone to lean on after my c section who changed my bloody pads and put new pants on me. Helped me on and off the bed. Gave me all the pain meds, advice, cuddles the baby. Made me laugh etc. I cannot thank these women enough for making my most vulnerable time of my life more pleasant