Midwives, hospitals and maternity services- what do you think???

[nearlythere]

Hi ladies, i am trying to gather some views from all you preggers people on the maternity services that you recieve- do you get community care or hospital based, mixture of the two, or private. What choices have your team given you with regards to the type of birth they offer and are you happy with the overall standard of maternity care?

I'm doing this to put together an argument for our health trust who are planning on downgrading our unit to midwife led with no obstetric unit- so med- high risk pregs will have to travel over 2 hours for obstetric care! Please help- god knows how many babies and mothers could be put at severe risk if this goes through!!

this makes me shudder - my ds only alive today because I was able to have a 'crash' cs under GA within 2 minutes of it becoming obvious he was in severe distress! Thank goodness I was in the right place and not two hours away.

It doesn't bear thinking about.

cheers for that sunnysideup- makes me panic as well, i won't have any more after this one if they do downgrade. The midwives are great on our unit but they are panicing because of situations like yours, the trust says that general surgeons will be able to do crash CS but then there will be no specialist care for either mother or baby!!

Carry on leaving all your views- I may have to leave you all to it for a while- impending birth and paranoid collegues!

i wouldnt have made it either if there wasnt the drs around for either of births. i had eclampsia with ds1 and severe pre-eclampsia with ds2. i had early signs so they knew what was coming but didnt expect it to get so bad during the birth. so bad having ds1 it took me 7 years to be brave enought to have ds2!!

I used a private midwife-led service for a wonderful natural waterbirth, but ONLY because they had operating theatres and an ICU on site, midwives with advanced training in neo-natal resucitation, incubators for the baby's transfer to another hospital...and numerous major hospitals within 10-15 min ambulance ride.

Even with a low risk pregnancy, I'd be nervous about not having those facilities very nearby.

However I must also add that having experienced big-supposedly-specialist-NHS-hospital for DD1 with all the facilities in the world, the midwife staffing crisis in the NHS actually causes a huge proportion of the emergency medical situations it has to deal with.

Women are left for hours unattended, and by the time the problem is identified it's emergency C-Section time.

Oh, just wanted to add a 'good luck' with your campaign. I'm sure many of us are horrified at the current situation in maternity services (particularly london and the SE) but feel powerless to do anything about it.

hear hear, brummie.

on both posts!

Here Here Brummie- at least someones got the guts to say it!! Personally i am scared to work on the staffing schedules we have (oh- have i mentioned i am a mw at said hospital!!) there are never more than 2 mw on overnight and max of 4 during the day (very unusual)- ok we are not a major unit having only around 650 births per annum but whos to say that 5 can't come in one night!! their other plan is to have multi-function nursing/maternity staff, so a jack of all trades and a master of none!!

Right similar here
We're in Lincs.
Grantham Hospital was downgraded to midwife unit only. With consultant led births being diverted to Lincoln or Boston Pilgrim - from where we live Grantham is 20 minutes Lincoln and Boston 40 minutes.
on the plus side there is a lot of support for those choosing homebirth. Which suits me as I have had quick and easy labours and births.
But I know for women who have gone to the m/w unit who have had to be helicoptered (very quick I'm told) or ambulanced to the other hospitals in emergencies.
I receive community m/w led care, I am under a consultant but not for birth issues, he also sees me in our town, where he holds a weekly clinic of all ob/gyn women.
There is talk now of taking away the m/w unit altogether which has caused HUGE upset and would be a disaster. since these changes, several babie shave been born in cars on the road to Lincoln, or in Gratham A+E /or in ambulances.
As I give birth within an hour of contractions, I would seriously struggle to get to Boston or Lincoln...

piffle you've really hit on something there which is that changing to midwife only CAN be a back door to removing maternity services altogether. In my experience the NHS is still a paternalistic, doctor driven organisation in that it will be a hell of a lot harder to get rid of a unit staffed by doctors and consultants than it will be to get rid of a few midwives.....

Piffle- glad it's not just our area!! People in the big cities don't seem to have these problems because of the population density- so their unit can be justified, but personally if a unit can save even one life i think it is justified!!

sounds like you need some press coverage...I'd put an SOS to any mumsnet PR gurus! (there must be hundreds of them).

I can't believe it's not being discussed more in the media. With every birth there's not one but two lives on the line.

Brummie- i wish!! There has been a lot of media coverage but the issue is so widespread- 'the agenda for change' affects the whole of the uk but unfortunatly more than the average number of hospitals in Wales because it is rural and underpopulated!

Unfortunatly it is a case of suits in westminster looking at a map and saying 'oh those two hospitals look close, surely we only need one there- if we save x million there that'll fund the champers for the party conference!!

Sorry to offend anyone but i'm tired hormonal and contracting- the whole issue has got a lot more real since i became pregnant!!

Well don't give up (or worry about offending anyone!). What you're doing is really important.

the m/w unit in question delivers around 110 babies a yr so you can see why they might see that as a cost cutting opportunity.
But cost cannot be measured by money alone esp in maternity services.

Nearlythere - I'm contemplating home birth at the moment but only because I live 15 mins drive (5 in blue-lit ambulance) away from consultant-led hosp so I can get in fast if need be. I get community-based care cos I'm low risk and chose to be MW-led.

Can I ask which hospitals you're talking about? Quite a few in Wales are facing this situation under the assembly's designed for life programme. There have been a few successes in halting plans to stop some hospital services being closed/moved, at least for the time being, although I can't think of a maternity example at the moment. Is there a campaign going on? You really need strength in numbers and keep or make good contacts with key media health correspondents to keep the issue in the public eye. With assembly elections coming up, the last thing politicians want is lots of people out demonstrating about their health policies which they're hoping to get re-elected on next May! If you don't mind being in the public eye yourself, as a midwife who's now pregnant you're a perfect case study for a news report because you can give the punter's and pro's angles.

I'm mainly talking about Bronglais hospital, Aberystwyth , but the closure of Llanidloes maternity and downgrading smaller units such as Towyn, Aberaeron and Newtown will also have a major effect on us!