I'm a Midwife AMA

[MidwifeAMA]

Experienced midwife, hoping to spread good quality info :)
AMA

Awkward paws, that's great!! Still early days so treat it gently, it still has healing to do and will continue to improve. X

Thank you. I've made peace with it now but had been telling someone about it recently which brought the memory back up and thought I'd ask on here! It feels like a lifetime ago now and the whole experience made me a much more empathetic person, so it hasnt been all bad.

@MidwifeAMA how successful is are sweeps? :) I have been offered one at 40 weeks and this is my first pregnancy.

Do you have any training on how to discuss use of a donor? The amount of midwives that saw my wife and I, we explained about the donor then consistently asked about the “dad” and when my wife was out of the room when my “sister” was coming back was shocking…during both my pregnancies….

Are there any guidelines or protocols on how to provide care for women who are sexual trauma survivors? Or for Women that can not tolerate internal examinations?

Is it universally assumed that because a woman is pregnant that she automatically agrees to intimate examinations/scans?

What sort of training do HCPs get on this?

I have tried to check NICE and RCOG to no avail. :(

Thank you :)

@MidwifeAMA what do you think about maternity care in the UK at the moment, do you think the ockenden review is making any impact or changes?

In what way do you think maternity services can be made safer for women and better for midwives.

Unable to explain my particular case, but in my experience
Telephone triage is inadequate and needs a formal set up
Rapid triage of women coming into the labour ward or accessing maternity services because of worries with their pregnancy is needed.
Annual training of interpreting CTgs, and testing of same.
A 'rule out worst case scenario' attitude, rather than the opposite which I've personally seen. In other words, greater vigilance.

Investment into staffing and facilities along with best practice is a given.

I do understand the mismatch between more 'natural' birth settings and a highly monitored and medicalised birth, and believe it's a very difficult circle to square, but more of a Scandinavian approach would help.

Hi @MidwifeAMA

Hoping you can help me.

Just been for a early pregnancy scan. I’m nearly 6 weeks.
The gestational sac was seen, with a yolk sac, in the correct place, which is great.
They could also see a 7mm anechoic area near the sac, she described it as a pocket of fluid.

What is this, and is it something to worry about?

Thank you (anxious mum to be 🤞🏽)

I'm not a midwife but please know that ANY AND ALL internal examinations are totally and absolutely optional.

I did not have one single vaginal exam my entire pregnancy and labour - for no reason other than I just didn't want any.

You can also now request a self testing kit for HPV instead of having the traditional smear tests if this is something that also bothers you.

Nothing should be assumed - all care offered in pregnancy and labour can be accepted or denied. They need to ask for your consent.

Oh this is interesting. I'd like to know what's the deciding factor for administering a blood transfusion ?

I lost 450 ebl and then another 1300 in pph. And had lots of people asking 'did you have a transfusion? no, so it can't have been that bad a haemorrhage then' 🤷 but my understanding is that was a fairly large amount of blood to lose and I wondered why no transfusion was necessary? Is it based on iron levels ?

My iron levels were 130 in the last bloods I had taken about 2w before delivery, and went down to about 101 on day 2 before discharge, but i personally reckon they went lower after i was home as that's when I was weakest and palest lips/eyelids.