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

I’ve had good ones and bad ones . Some midwives are wonderful and some clearly are tired feed up and shouldn’t be doing the job .
I also worked in clinical negligence a few years and unfortunately most injuries and issues during birth are indeed due to medical neglect and could be avoided sometimes due to midwives, other times due to doctors neglect .

My midwives with both my children were brilliant. Lovely, caring and advocated for me against Drs.
I do think they are under extreme pressure due to being understaffed and I feel like Drs try and push to control labour, bed numbers etc and it causes alot of conflict between them.

I had 3 fantastic midwifes for 3 births. They didn't leave my side once I was in active labour.
My 4th midwife well she was in the room when I give birth but she didn't do fuck all ds dropped out onto the bed. "I didn't catch him" no shit sherlock you was busy on the computer with your back to me how could you catch him.

Mine was awful- told me I wasn’t in labour- made me feel stupid- sent me home in loads of pain (the place was empty - they had to switch the lights on!) ended up having baby on my own at home 2 hours later

I don’t mean to deny your experience, OP, but I don’t see how this can be true. According to NICE guidelines, midwives have to monitor a woman in active labour (so more than 4cm dilated) every 15 minutes - either with a hand held Doppler or by checking the CTG trace. So it is highly unlikely they would just ignore you for hours. Could you request a copy of your labour notes and ask to meet a consultant midwife to go through them and discuss?

I found the maternity hospital to be totally archaic…
But, luckily, the right midwife was there for my birth.
EMCS, she was calm amid chaos. Saved my baby,

I had a home birth and the 2 midwife's stood by and watched and n one point of view didn't do much. To be fair that was my birthplan in a way but I had to ask if I should get in the pool and ask for gass and air which I thought was odd. However I do appreciate that they really let me get on with it, they monitored me as needed but it was really unobtrusive, I know they would have stepped in if needed. Looking back I value that they were just thier in the background. I do wish they had told me that I would need to ask them for things rather than them stepping in to make suggestions. My fear was having midwifes who dismissed me and like the story's above ignore when in labour.

Thats your experience.
Through my pregnancies and births I was looked after by lovely midwives and I’ve not got a bad thing to say about any of them. First pregnancy normal but ended up complicated birth, subsequent pregnancies high risk and equally great staff.

Friends twins were very premature. In SCIBU the midwives were lovely.

Most of the ones I saw were good. The one I had in the operating theatre with me drove me up the wall because she wouldn't let me have a gentle c section (it wasn't an emergency) and wouldn't agree to any of the things I asked for (like holding DS as soon as he was born.) She wasn't 'bad' per say, just didn't like doing things differently! The midwives I saw in the MDUA, maternity ward and the community midwives were lovely and looked after me and DS really well, as was the mental health midwife I spoke to, and the one I had my birth reflections appointment with. I had a lot of help, firstly because of being high risk for PPD, and secondly because I'm a single mum and the nurses/midwives on the maternity ward looked after DS so I could sleep/have a shower/eat something. My friends helped where they could but they couldn't be there all the time.

Im a nurse and midwives have a bit of a reputation amongst Dr's and other nurses of being a bit difficult, forceful and opinionated as a profession.

Add to that being over worked, lack of staff and a poor ward culture and it's no surprise to me that it's about 50/50 whether you get a good experience or not.
My own experience was very mixed, DS1 born in London was not great, had 1 nice young midwife at the start of labour, the rest seemed disinterested. The post labour ward was downright awful.
DS2 born in Scotland, was a positive experience, my midwife during labour was newly qualified and excellent. I hope she still is and the job hasn't worn her down too much.

Gosh. This thread is a hard read.

I’m lucky that I’ve never had, or worked with, a midwife who wasn’t dedicated to the art.

Maternity care is an absolute disgrace in Britain. YANBU.

I nearly lost DS because the midwife didn't take me seriously. Luckily my mum ushered me out and to another hospital where I had a emergency csection within hours.

My midwives during delivery both times were super amazing, however during my check ups prior to delivery I had a bad experience. Second child,heavily pregnant and I was a few minutes late for my appointment (think 2 or 3 minutes). then the check in machine wasn't working or something and I had to wait in line for the receptionist to check me in, which she buggered up doing properly, so she had to do it again ( can't remember exactly how but she buggered up somehow so I didn't get checked in the first time around) so i ended up being like 20 minutes late. I eventually did get in to see the midwife and without evsn asking me what happened she absolutely laid into me about being late in such a rude way. I took responsibility for being 2 or 3 mins late and then told her she shouldn't be telling me off when the rest was the fault of the practice and she soon ate her words. I complained and refused to have her care for me and my baby for the rest of the pregnancy.

Honestly, you are so right. Both my pregnancies, the community midwives and the hospital midwives were rude, cold, dismissive and totally uninterested. I truly felt like I was inconveniencing them by being there and having a baby!! I wouldn't recommend our local hospital maternity unit to anyone sadly. I was in labour for over 50 hours with my 1st, ending in emergency C Section. The midwives were awful, the Dr was lovely.

I went through loads of midwives when I gave birth because I was induced and it took ages.

They were all really attentive and careful and professional. I left utterly in awe of how they do that job day in, day out.

I actually have some reservations about the advice and treatment I was given (I wish I hadn’t been induced, and I leaked spinal fluid after my epidural because it was botched - but neither of those things were midwives!). I can see that they are risk averse and like to be in control. And ultimately I came away with a healthy baby so I’m forever grateful.

I complained about the fucking bitch of a midwife I met when 20 weeks with DC2 to discuss a VBAC. I did get an apology from the head of midwives but that bitch should not be anywhere near patients. I asked her about having a second c sections and she said, Well, I suppose it depends on how much you care about your baby. Um what? Sadly for her I had already done plenty of research and I have a background in statistics. So her bullshit scare tactics and ‘odds of haemorrhage’ didn’t wash with me. I demanded my notes back, left and went to the loo and cried 😂. Then complained.

I have to agree unfortunately. With both mine I’d say the majority were flaky as, but thankfully the two that were on hand when the actual birth started were really great. With my first the umbilical cord was strangling my DS and she managed to calmly free him without me even knowing there was a problem (it wasn’t until afterwards that I found out). My enduring memory though is, with my first, turning up at the labour ward in agony and being greeted by a gurning, over-made-up midwife with huge comedy bunches, which made me super-anxious at the time!

But it’s awful to read of so many awful experiences here 😔 It’s not something I’ve come across much- I know lots of people who’ve had difficult births, but not often heard of dissatisfaction with the midwives specifically.

On my second DC I went into labour at home at 36 weeks with a C-section booked for 3 weeks time. I had strong contractions, water broke, I was bleeding. I called the L&D ward- the midwife my god I still about her. She sighed and said well come in if you want. But totally nonchalant it’s up to you, you can stay at home if you want. When I did go in she was clearly not up to the job. Couldn’t get the gas and air working, seemed just generally not very sure of anything

DS was born 90 mins later. A cat 2 section. I shudder to think what would have happened if I had taken her advice to do whatever!

I’ve got 2 DCs, both induced, first ended in forceps, and the midwives from community to labour to postnatal were all fantastic.

With my first, his trace was terrible and suddenly the room was full of people, consultant came in to assess and while getting prepped for an instrumental my midwife encouraged me to push DC1 further out then swiftly moved to holding my hand for forceps. She stayed by my side while I delivered the placenta and held my hand again while I was getting stitched up.

Second birth was longer but straight forward, both midwives were just amazing. Looked after really well after both births.

I will say it is rare to hear bad stories from our local hospital, BUT I know a midwife who works there and she says the older, more experienced midwives are worth their weight in gold. The newer, recently qualified ones cause a lot of stress for the others and are some are quite lazy especially when getting to the end of their shift and thinking they can leave things for the next lot on. But there’s a shortage of midwives in general and the older ones are quickly retiring because of workload where they can. Agree with a PP that midwives who trained as nurses then moved across seem the best ones.

I see what you mean @JackandSallySkellington- but the homebirth mw did exactly what I needed. She did coach me through the transition and birth, which was so helpful, her calm reassurance was exactly what I needed for the type of birth I had. Afterwards she stayed for a while to do all her observations and notes, helped me go to the loo, helped me get baby latched on and then ate some pizza with us 😂 But yeah, I’d say it was a nice gig for her. And being a mw at a home birth is I guess, a very different role to being a mw in hospital.