Maternity notes

[frillysocks88]

Has anyone requested a copy of their maternity notes a few years after the birth of their child? My DD was born 7 years ago and for some reason I’ve always wanted to read the notes as midwife was awful ( whole other thread) but out of nosiness want to know what was written. Lots of parts I can’t remember and some traumatic things happened that I think shouldn’t have.

How do I start the process. And will they tell my GP I have requested them?

Will this really help you or would you be best to put it behind you and concentrate on the positives today including your healthy child?

The hospital you birthed at will have their own process on how to request your notes. If you ring PALS there they will be able to advise you on how to do it. Maternity notes are kept for 25 years post birth. They may be in external secure storage by now, but you are entitled to a copy. You may have to pay a fee (of no more than £50) for admin/copying/postage.

I requested my hospital notes from the births of my 3 children, not for any other reason than to have them as a keepsake. I just looked at the hospitals website and there was a section on there detailing how to go about requesting medical records.

I paid an initial £10 admin fee then roughly another £15 fee based on the amount of photocopying that had to be done. I’m fairly sure the total cost is capped at £50 as a PP said.

They didn’t inform my gp and I didn’t ask for any of my records from the gp surgery, just the hospital (which included my maternity notes).

Oh, forgot to add that I made the request when my eldest was around 8 years old.

I didn’t have a copy made, but I had a meeting with a senior midwife who sat down with me and went through all my notes talking through every single thing that had happened. It was about one hour and was incredibly helpful. I’d recommend it.
I think unless you are medically trained to be able to read and understand all their notes, this is more useful than simply having a copy done, as she could explain every decision, what things meant etc

I requested mine for DC1. It was about £30/40 I think. I would definitely recommend it. It really helped me put to bed lots of things that upset me from my first labour. There are lots of resources online to decode the notes and I also asked my MWs for DC2 to explain things/if what happened was normal practice.

I asked to see mine from my second child when I was hospital having my third. That was 3 years later and they had them on site, I got them within 24 h.

I was told by my midwife that notes were retained by the hospital so I took photos of the pages throughout my pregnancy. Interesting reading.