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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:
Notquiteagandt · 07/08/2018 22:17

@gothicsprout I think we must live in the same area. Most in your face huge thing ive ever seen.

That was a nervous sprint home from booking in appointment hoping no one I knew saw me.

Didbt think it through at all

TellerTuesday4EVA · 07/08/2018 22:23

Totally going off point but I'm completely baffled as to why the NHS doesn't have a centralised database given that we're at the height of technological advancement etc

BathshebaKnickerStickers · 07/08/2018 22:26

I had an A4 folder for each of my pregnancies. When we went away on holiday ( campsites or caravans) I took them with me and always asked at reception where my closest maternity unit was in case I needed that info.

I didn’t take them to Tesco and on the school run.

I’ve recently become an epipen holder - it took me a goodly while to get my head round needing to have that medication with me at all times. It would have been hard to adjust to taking papers with me every single place I went

olderthanyouthink · 07/08/2018 23:06

@gothicsprout & @Notquiteagandt have you got the mama academy zippy folder? There's no mistaking what that's for and it amuses the people at work who catch as glance and see vaginal discharge or similar.

Mine are living in my rucksack atm, I've carried them on and off though. There's supposed to be online notes but I couldn't get in. The emergency details in my phone say I'm pregnant (I put that in when it wasn't obvious) and the my notes are probably in my bag.

Eemamc · 07/08/2018 23:20

I kept mine in my car from about 25 weeks, so when I was at work they were with me, or outside my house when I was at home. If we were going somewhere in my husband’s car I would make sure I had them too. I just wouldn’t want to risk going into labour somewhere, have to go to the nearest hospital instead and not have them with me. My hospital bag was in my boot from about 35 Weeks too I think

Crunchymum · 07/08/2018 23:33

I walked too and from work until I was 37w with DC1 so carrying my notes wasn't practical (not a stealth boast by the way. I have Arthritis now, a mere 5 years later!!)

I worked and lived near my hospital and it would have been no bother for someone to grab my notes in the case of accidents / early labour. Not sure if it makes a difference that i'd always have been taken to "my" hospital. I didn't venture far in pregnancy Grin

goforthandmultiply · 07/08/2018 23:46

I kept mine hidden in the car from 36 weeks but not before then. I can't carry a massive bag and I was scared of them being stolen. Hmm

OlennasWimple · 07/08/2018 23:59

It's utterly crazy that in 2018 we are expected to carry paper notes with us

What happens if the notes get lost?

gothicsprout · 08/08/2018 00:25

@olderthanyouthink that's the one. This was with my 1st pregnancy a couple of years ago. Currently waiting for booking appointment for DC2 so who knows how far their technology may have advanced... I won't hold my breath.

Graphista · 08/08/2018 01:04

I had dd in Germany. You're given an a5 size book (I say book it was actually a little file so you could remove old info when replacing with latest info which supersedes previous info) contains all your pregnancy and relevant health info it's called a mutterpass and you are required to carry it at all times. I found it very handy. My pregnancy with dd was high risk, lots going on.

Definitely we should do the same here, especially useful if a pregnant woman collapses in the street or is unconscious after being in an rta for paramedics. Not least because especially early on its not obvious to strangers that you are pregnant.

Even now on my phone in the medical ID app I have my health info inc what meds I'm currently on, ICE etc. Plus I've made sure my family know I'm an organ donor.

But I agree with modern tech it should be possible to have them on your phone accessible in an emergency just as medical ID app works.

rosiejaune · 08/08/2018 01:11

YABU to expect women to carry a heavy book around with them (if they're even physically/mentally capable of doing so) when the NHS should standardise their record-keeping systems instead.

Also pregnancy is not a disease; why should we all assume we are likely going to get rushed to hospital unconscious at some point during gestation?!

User467 · 08/08/2018 01:21

Your post makes sense but then I did carry my notes with me including when I went in to have my DS. Midwives didn't take one look at them until after I had had him. Never checked or enquired about my birth plan that we had been told we had to document in it and missed the fact I was rhesus negative so left it too late for cord blood to be taken resulting in my baby having to have an blood test. So I guess it kinda works both ways

CheshireChat · 08/08/2018 01:33

OlennasWimple We get told off like naughty children and made to feel like a massive inconvenience for something we shouldn't have to do in the first place.

Paper notes are rubbish because sometimes the handwriting is really bad, if they get wet (water/ spilled drinks) they become unusable, the writing can actually fade like it did with mine etc etc.

ColdCottage · 08/08/2018 02:26

From what point in pregnancy do you mean for a pregnancy with no complications (or past ones)?

sycamore54321 · 08/08/2018 02:50

I would not choose to carry private medical information with me at all times. Something like a pregnancy file would have incredibly sensitive information about a person, including their HIV status, history of previous abortions, sexual health history, screening for domestic violence.... Plus the simple fact that it is private medical information. It's ridiculously disproportionate to expect women to carry that around in an insecure format with them at all times.

I find it very hard to believe that not carrying notes causes genuine problems which impact on outcomes at an unexpected admission. If the woman is bleeding now, surely she needs a scan now. If she has a poorly positioned placenta or a history of high blood pressure, she can tell you when you ask. A file report of her scans from a week or a month or six months earlier will likely tell you nothing about the reason she is bleeding now and cannot be relied upon to make any decisions now. If a woman is conscious and competent, she can tell you her medical history and any abnormal findings in her previous scans or appointments. If she is not conscious, there is no way you can assume the folder of notes found near her relates to her. If she is not competent, she should not be expected to carry around a folder of personal sensitive information.

So honestly OP, what difference in medical treatment does it make for anyone if they have their notes or not? How many health outcomes for women or their babies have been demonstrably improved because the woman was carrying her notes? And does this outweigh the many risks I mentioned of a woman carrying her notes everywhere?

What other medical condition sees patients expected to carry sensitive medical information with them at all times? Why are pregnant women treated like idiots who can't recount their own medical history if requires?

MrsSnootyPants2018 · 08/08/2018 02:56

I've never understood why people don't. Firstly it says on the notes to keep them with you, secondly my midwife made it clear to me that I should.

I had them at all times with DC1 and I currently do with DC2. They're in my bag next to my bed!

JillianHoltzmann · 08/08/2018 03:01

My midwife took my notes off me. They're starting to use Lorenzo- a computer based system- but there's been a lot of trouble with it. They have an internal paper notes system and the hospital uses that so they never put anything on Lorenzo, which means my midwife at the GP has no idea about what's happened in the hospital. I had the same blood test done three times because of this, nobody listened to me when I said it had been done! I wish I had paper notes!

Oblomov18 · 08/08/2018 04:28

Archaic that it isn't all digital now anyway. Long term underfunding and burying head in sand attitude, yet again.

Jimdandy · 08/08/2018 06:16

It’s about time the NHS sorted their system out and go everything electronic. We’re nearly a fifth of the way through the 21st century and expecting people to carry notes around with them.

It’s ridiculous.

kmc1111 · 08/08/2018 06:16

Jeez, it’s been an age since I was last pregnant and it was all digitally stored back then (not in the UK). Seems insane that people should have to carry around a folder of notes in 2018.

MrsSnootyPants2018 · 08/08/2018 06:51

I think the idea of carrying then and having paper is that it doesn't matter where in the country your are you have all the notes in an emergency.

As for paper, if all the computers went down and you went into labour early, then they can't wait for that system to reboot.

BathshebaKnickerStickers · 08/08/2018 07:11

It’s been a while since I had a baby but unless things have radically changed that is a LOT of personal information to be carrying around to potentially get lost/stolen.

Full name, address, maiden name, i’m Sure I had the date of our wedding in one set of notes...

Info you are told not to give out....but when you are pregnant you should have it in you at all times.....

PinkAvocado · 08/08/2018 07:39

MrsSnootyPants-Sycamore’s post explains perfectly why many don’t keep the notes on them at all times. There was no secret codes from midwife to midwife in mine. Nothing I couldn’t tell for myself. If I couldn’t say for myself, are midwives really going to look through any bags I have with me to look for them? Surely that’d be an emergency situation and dealt with as such. Do paramedics sort through the boot of someone’s car in a RTA in case there are notes? (Maybe they do but can’t imagine so).

LML83 · 08/08/2018 07:44

Have Had 2 children, brought notes whenever I knew I needed them. Never occurred to me to carry them around day to day. Now you mention about accidents it makes a lot of sense, if the midwife at the gp practice explained it like you have I would have carried them everywhere.

Topseyt · 08/08/2018 08:54

I agree with Sycamore.

I have other medical conditions. Two serious ones. I am not required to carry massive folders of notes around for those. Why is the system for pregnant women still back in the dark ages?