to refuse to go to another booking-in appointment?

[QueenOfFlamingEverything]

I am 18 weeks pg with my 2nd DC, low risk, healthy, and planning a second home birth. I moved house to a new area 2 weeks ago, and am in the process of trying to transfer my antenatal care.

Before moving I saw a midwife twice, had a booking-in appointment (done at home!) and a dating scan, and have my handheld notes with me now. The area I have moved to uses the same notes, and I have registered with the local GP and seen my new named midwife. She is happy to book me in for a homebirth here.

However, the 'local' hospital (25 miles away as we are quite rural now) has a system where all pg women have to attend a 3 hour booking appointment at the hospital. Apparently it takes 3 hours as it is in 3 stages and you have to wait in between each part, according to the appointment card they sent me today. My midwife, who hoped they wouldn't insist I attended this, is now on leave until after the appointment has been made.

So I rang to ask if it was really necessary to go, seeing as pregnancy notes are handheld anyway, and my midwife agrees I am low risk and do not need consultant/hospital care. Apparently, I was told, the appointment is essential for their records and 'it will make my life difficult' if I decide not to attend

I cancelled it anyway as I fail to see the benefit for myself or the baby of trekking 25 miles on rural busses just so they can fill out a new set of handheld notes.

Is there some benefit of this appointment that I am missing or am I correct in thinking it is unnecessary beaurocracy?

it is a pita, but afaik, hospitals do not share notes, so it may be worth biting the bullet and going so your new hospital has full records of you should anything crop up during the rest of your pregnancy that is not on the hand held notes.

when i was pg with dd, i had to book in where we lived although we were due to move in a matter of weeks, then book in again at the local hospital to my mum as we were staying there for 6 weeks, then for a 3rd time when we finally moved to our new house.

Notes arehandheld but certain parts of your handheld notes are copied into the computer system. Its likely that this new hospital won't have you on their system. You could always ring the new hospital and ask a supervisor of midwives if there is no alternative such as you photocopying any pages they need and posting htem in?

Could be worse - where I work the hospital refuse to accept any info from another hospital and insist on new anonomly scans and blood tests.

It is a PITA and bloody stupid but yes if you change hospitals it would seem that you need to book in with the new one.

Like GothDetective when I changed they did a bunch of scans and blood tests again, which is a huge waste of money IMO.

I moved when I was 8 months pregnant and only had my hand held notes. So when I was bleeding from some unexplained source and there was nothing for the staff to go on as all my scan notes were in Bradford and I was 250 miles away, I was rather . I'd get the stuff done so if anything happens they won't just look concerned and baffled. Not encouraging...

Hmm.

I asked if it could be done over the phone or by post and the midwife on the phone was adamant that I needed to attend the appointment.

I am declining all blood tests as I have needle-phobia, I don't want screening, and know my blood group, that I am rhesus+, immune to rubella, and do not have HIV/syphilis. I did have a dating scan but am still considering whether or not to have the 20week scan. My midwife is fine with this, she knows I am making informed decisions and understand the theoretical risks.

So its not like there is anything they can't find out over the phone or by me posting a photocopy of my existing notes.

i transferred care during my pregnancy, and was told that the handheld notes are a legal document which need to be kept by the hospital after the birth or if you transfer care to a different hospital, and that they also needed the paper records in order to claim the funding from the PCT for the care already given. this might be a load of rubbish of course, but it's what i was told - PITA for you though, i agree.

I was told by my previous midwife that the notes should stay with me, she didn't say anything about needing them for funding purposes.

what, even after the birth? the hospital took mine back once i was on the postnatal ward & have kept them since, i thought that was fairly standard