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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask you to carry your pregnancy notes with you?

154 replies

NC4T · 07/08/2018 15:36

I am a triage midwife. One of the biggest frustrations of the job is women turning up without their notes. I have some very basic information on the computer but I have no scan reports, no record of any of your antenatal appointments or admissions or consultant plans or anything!

Obviously when women know they are coming in they bring their notes, so I am talking about the unexpected admissions - the falls, RTAs, bleeding at work, fainting, unexpected waters breaking etc etc. Which is exactly when we most need the information! It’s also a huge problem as we are close to lots of centres of employment so every day have women being admitted who are not booked here, but haven’t taken their notes into work and we are the closest hospital for their emergency. Then we have not even the most basic information.

Just now I have taken a routine phone call and have referred her to a page in her notes, to be told “oh no, I haven’t got them, I am at work in x city”. Well why haven’t you?

So please, I know they are bulky, I know it’s a faff but carry your notes with you wherever you go. You just don’t know when you might need to go to the nearest maternity unit!

OP posts:
TurquoiseDress · 07/08/2018 17:21

YANBU

In my first pregnancy I had a tiny handbag and never carried my notes anywhere unless I was attending a midwife/ante-natal appointment.
Luckily never needed them/no unexpected emergencies.

With my most recent pregnancy, I did tend to take them with me everywhere from around 30 weeks. The midwives I saw did not tell me any different/tell me to take them with me...I guess I maybe had more anxiety about things going wrong this time (previous missed miscarriage).

placemats · 07/08/2018 17:21

Yet I wasn't believed when I told the midwife (my third child) that I had rubella as a child and so didn't need to be tested - and that this was, erm, my third pregnancy - it was in a different area but still?

PinkAvocado · 07/08/2018 17:24

Oh and now I worry I’ll one day lose the children’s red books as it seems that’s the only place their medical history is...

GKite · 07/08/2018 17:24

I'm in Scotland, we get told to take our notes to every appointment but you don't need to take them to the shops Hmm however my notes in the hospital are absolutely massive, there is 3 different volumes of notes Blush

MeltingPregnantLady · 07/08/2018 17:25

Mine are a5 so if one trust can manage it why can't others?

Marmite27 · 07/08/2018 17:27

My manager asked why I had my notes on my desk every day. My reply was, if I pass out and an ambulance is called can you accurately explain all the issues with my high risk pregnancy to the paramedic?

Where I was, they were.

GinGeum · 07/08/2018 17:29

I don’t carry mine. They’d be a shred of their former selves if I did. What am I supposed to do, carry them under my arm while I do crop walks? Lug them from tractor to combine to loader to car all day, and then risk leaving them behind in one vehicle and not remembering which one? Stuff them down my trousers while out with the dogs? I’ll take them with me if I’m going a great distance from home, but surely it makes me sense to leave them easily accessible at home so anyone can grab them for me in the event of an emergency? The hospital is a 15 minute walk from my house.

DrWhy · 07/08/2018 17:29

@Celebelly my midwife seems to diligently fill everything in on her computer screen but for some reason it doesn’t update to the website. I also wonder how many of the women who have this system realise the hospitals in other parts of the UK can’t access it so if as in the case seen by a PP if you present unwell and in pain you have to log yourself on your phone (if you can get an internet connection) and show them or relay info. The scan results, pictures and notes are still paper and kept at the hospital so not even slightly accessible to anyone but that hospital. I’m not impressed so far!

Celebelly · 07/08/2018 17:31

I do know our midwives just got a new computer system that they are learning so I wonder if there's gremlins in there somewhere!

Skyechasemarshalontheway · 07/08/2018 17:33

I am in scotland and its mostly all digital here. So id hope another county could access out local maternitys files online.

GothMummy · 07/08/2018 17:43

Wow really? Mine were in a huge A4 folder. I wasn't carrying that everywhere for 6 months!

BlueBug45 · 07/08/2018 17:47

@placemats but patients don't tell the truth plus hospitals don't accept results from each other or even a GP's practice in the same local area as the hospital which uses the same hospital haematology department.

CheshireChat · 07/08/2018 17:59

I tried carrying mine, but they were starting to get battered beyond belief for one, and two I had placenta praevia, SPD and sciatica so not feasible to carry them. Not everyone has a car!

jgjgjgjgjg · 07/08/2018 17:59

Anything which adds stress and anxiety to a pregnant woman is not acceptable in my books. Being gently requested to carry her notes with her at all times - fine. Being 'told off' or made to feel like a naughty child for not doing so - definitely not fine. A good midwife will do the best she can with the information she has in the circumstances she finds herself in WITHOUT shouting at or blaming or any way applying stress to either the labouring woman or birth partner. Any midwife not able to do that should be sacked instantly.

Frazzled2207 · 07/08/2018 18:01

I kept mine in the car but tbf they didn't exactly fit in my handbag. They came on holiday.

OP- I get your point but I'd really like to know if there is likely to be an end to this archaic practice anytime soon. It seems absolute madness to me that in this day and age notes can't be stored electronically. I know appointments can be done away from the hospital but most places have this thing called wireless internet....

Bellabutterfly2016 · 07/08/2018 18:06

My midwife told me that I was meant to carry mine round with me! But still inputs everything on to her laptop.

It's very personal data to carry round everywhere - I wouldn't want to risk loosing my folder of stuff it's far too big to go into a normal sized handbag so I just take my to appointments.

We're going to Spain in 3 weeks so might take it with me, if I remember that is!!!!

CookPassBabtridge · 07/08/2018 18:26

You are so right and I did carry mine with me. But only because I was reminded to. If not, I would assume it would all be on a system. It's ridiculous in this day and age that there isn't one big medical file for everyone, accessible at all medical facilities.

placemats · 07/08/2018 18:29

Can someone please tell me when you had to carry your notes around with you at all times?

Please?

Roomba · 07/08/2018 18:36

I assume you;re supposed to carry them everywhere from the very second they are given to you.

I carried mine around everywhere in my first pregnancy. Had my bag stolen when I was 26 weeks with them inside! You'd think I'd sold them on the black market to buy crack or something, the amount of tutting and dirty looks I got from the midwifery team when I had to get new ones compiled. So I didn't bother next time round, just kept them in the car so I knew they weren't too far away (or DP could drive them to me if I was taken in unexpectedly).

BustopherJones · 07/08/2018 19:22

I was given a telling off when I had to go back into hospital a few hours after being discharged with my new baby. I’d gone via a&e on the advice of a paramedic on the phone and hadn’t thought to take the envelope addressed ‘To Community Midwife Team’ that I’d been sent home with. My notes turned out to be important enough to shout at me about while I held my hours old baby and nearly fainted from pain, but not important enough for anyone to get them from the room down the hall where I’d handed them in hours earlier.

Mind you, I also got a telling off because I said I couldn’t sit down to have my blood pressure taken. I had a prolapse and my organs were making a break for it so the difference between sitting and standing probably wasn’t the key factor in my blood pressure.

Allthewaves · 07/08/2018 19:26

I kept mine in the car. Also took photos on my phone so they could be referenced in emergency

Allthewaves · 07/08/2018 19:27

Friend scanned hers and kept as pdf with access on phone and husbands phone

Viola82 · 07/08/2018 19:37

is this a joke? its 2018..
I agree to have pics on my phone but surely nhs should have my records in the system..
I dont ask my customers to carry work I provide them ALL THE TIME, I dont ask them at all..

Flev · 07/08/2018 19:51

I've taken them with me when I've gone away for the weekend - but like others have said it's simply not practical to carry a large a4 book around with me every day. If they fit in my handbag if might work better - but they would still be an additional weight.

cadburyegg · 07/08/2018 19:53

My notes were never filled in with my last pregnancy. It was all electronic so I was told so there was no need. Fair enough. Then I went to a routine check up at a different GP surgery and they couldn’t access my records at all because that particular surgery wasn’t on the system. So because my paper notes (which I had brought with me) were never filled in, and they couldn’t access my records, they knew nothing about my pregnancy at all. Helpful Confused

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