Due in Sept '07 - Part 4 - The biggest antenatal club EVER !!

[canadianmum]

Welcome to the new thread, how long until we get up to 1000 posts ????
Please note that I have put scan and due date stats in a different thread in case you are looking for them.

Thanks for your advice Chattyhan ( and not TMI!)

I didn't know AntiD lasted 6 weeks - its good to know and explains why they didn't need me to go in and get another injection. I do think its a shame that the people actually responsible for my care couldn't tell me that but I am very glad that you have. I have an antenatal appt at the hospital next week for general review so am relived that at least I actually get to see someone before the end of May which is when my next one with community midwife was scheduled. My midwife couldn't have sounded less interested yesterday - I'm really not impressed and trying to find out if there is any way I can change. The hospital told me to call them directly if I have another bleed so thats something.

I agree that if anything that Panorama prog showed how important it is that we all stick up for ourselves. Its horrible that its come to this but the fact is if you just put up with being stuck in a corridor and ignored then they'll just keep you there.

Good luck to everyone with scans today - will we get some more boys do we think?

Congratulations PLP!!! Girls will rule the world.....

Pleased i could help - just sorry you're going through this!

I haven't met my midwife yet! She's never available on my appointments and my next isn't until 11th june from before easter which seems like an eternity! Just pleased i have the reassurance that i am now feeling the baby move!

Have you felt any movement yet?

Yes - I do feel the baby move quite a bit. Its the only thing that stopped me panicking yesterday if truth be told. I hope you actually meet your midwife soon! Who have your appts been with so far?

The booking appointment at 8 wks was with the old midwife who has left. At 16 wks i saw a stand in from another GP and that's it until june!

Pennypops just realised you're quite near me. I live in fleet.

penny pops I have a feeling my bump is a boy (otherwise this little girl is going to be very confused about how mum first talked to it) but will find out later.

Nervous but excited too -so will let you know

Ooooh good luck Poppy.

Chatty - Fleet sounds as rubbish as Reading. Does it come under Basingstoke hospital or somewhere like Frimley?

Frimley! My friend 5 mins away in surrey seems to have a far better deal!! With my first pregnancy i was in Surrey and found the midwifes far more concerned and helpful. Well they've still got time to prove me wrong!!

HI!

HIWBB - Thank you! Scan was great. Baby still curled up, but saw him/her yawn loads!!! It was very sweet. All is perfect.

Holly 29 - Main issues from Panorama are (to my mind) chronic lack of Midwives, lack of managerial support for the few midwives that are there, little equipment and due to all of the above, disillusioned, burned out midwives who have lost the focus of midwifery & see women in labour as the problem rather than their reason for being there, because they are so busy trying to plug holes in a system that is failing and averting disasters.

Sorry if that is a one sided view of the programme, but as an NHS nurse, I get mighty hacked off when I see programmes that focus on the 'on the ground problems' and highlight attitudes of NHS staff (which CAN be terrible), but then allow High-Level Management to fob them off with carefully worded phrases that amount to "we've got no idea what is going on, but clearly none of it is OUR fault, and it is all their own fault">

The reality is, they cut budgets, and then when staff do their best to 'make do', so patient care is not compromised, they use that as their excuse for making cuts permanent.

If it helps, I'm in Basingstoke and I didn't experience any problems with DS and DD but I have to admit I'm slightly anxious because that was many years ago and I'm hoping things haven't changed for the worst. The sonographer today didn't give me much hope tbh!! SIL had a very good experience there a couple of months ago though...

I avoided watching panorama because DC's were in the room and I know it would make them really anxious about this LO bless them! Also, I have a secret wish to be a midwife one day and I didn't want to be put off!!

I didn't watch Panorama and I am glad I didn't, things like that tend to really freak me out. I just can't believe that this government is spending billions on a pointless war while our health service struggles to have enough nurses, doctors and midwives to give people decent care, makes me so angry .

[deep breath] Anyway, enough politics!

Congratulations purple! Another girl, but don't worry if they got it wrong, one of my sons LOVES purple .

I can't believe people were saying our thread name is boring, I didn't realise that there was some requirement to have an exciting and witty thread name . I will happily leave it up to someone else when we go to Part 5 ...... I did actually find the June thread title slightly offensive but then I thought the word was supposed to be fer which I found a bit harsh. If it was ber then maybe not quite so bad. I guess I am overly sensitive since my boys came early at 32 weeks and I would have done anything to keep them in there for another few weeks. I do tend to think in quite fluffy, soppy terms about my bubba - maybe I will feel differently at 39 weeks and be writing my own scandalous thread titles .

Hey canadianmum, it was only one stroppy woman who said our thread was boring, don't you worry....

I agree with you about the other thread names. And lets face it, it isn't a competition surely!!?? Very sad!

Congrats Purple and Lou on your scan results. I CAN'T WAIT 'TIL WEDNESDAY, oooh 5 sleeps to go

I think our title is fine

We have our travel system!! Early I know but we didn't want to miss the cheapness!

Well, I popped round to my SIL's and she had a PURPLE BUGGY for me!!!! Yay!!!!!!! It's one of those Britax three wheelers ones and although it's from 6months onwards, I'm absolutely stoked to have a purple one. Just got to find something from birth now (thinking of getting a carseat to fit into it).

Not sure if I've explained properly before but I'm a purple FREAK and when I had DD, they didn't do much purple stuff for babies so I'm going to make the most of this! If it comes in purple, I've got it in purple!!! I'm still trying to convince DH that we should call this one Lilac or Purple or something like that but for some reason he's just not keen

This thread title is great and serves it purpose well. I don't mind whether its practical or a bit funny, we'll all just chat and have fun anyway!

PLP, how about violet or look at some dulux/b&q colour charts- they have some really creative names for shades and you may find one

DP still trying to convince me not to get my hopes up as sonographer may have got it wrong but I can't help going gooey over all the pink stuff

xx

PLP I went to uni with a girl obsessed with purple. Her name was Penny and we called her Purple Penny

hello! know i haven't been around for while (takes days to catch up on this thread) but can i vent please? apologies in advance for ranting...

so, mistake number one, watching panorama the day before scan. after a less than delightful experience with dd, i should have known better. quite agree with lou for pointing out management were rubbish and clearly didn't know or much care to know what was going on in the wards (all sort of 'well if that did happen it was unacceptable' hmmm. isn't it your staffing policies which lead to these sort of things?!) but gawd, the midwives!? terrifying!
reporter: 'the woman in labour in the corridor is crying'
Midwife 'tell her to get a life'
and then the way the programme ended (i paraphrase)
midwife 'it won't get any better until a woman dies, babies die, they're cheap, we've done that before, it'll take a woman to die..but god bless the midwife involved in that'. what about the woman who dies?!!?

i do understand where the midwife is coming from - but this 'us and them' attitude makes me feel defensive and like i need to go in fighting.
basically, after watching panormama it felt like it was women v midwives in labour wards. not a good thought. and unfair to lots of midwives i know. but why aren't the midwives the ones exposing this? the midwifery reps i saw being interviewed about the programme could have been much stronger and surely should have been attacking the management/govt instead of trying to pretend midwives haven't been alienated into the last sort of people you want in the birthing room with you (and i know they're not all like this i have one wonderful and one awful one last time while i laboured. thank god the awful one kept out of the room most of the time).

I am not just having a pop at midwives, i have some experience in working in the health service and i know it's complicated and the blame lies at the management door and i work in the media and of course, the most shocking incidents were chosen for the programme and lots of no doubt excellent expereiences were left out 'cos that's not what the film was about but gawd, wish i hadn't watched it day before scan (not all scans went well with dd so aprehensive anyway). You can imagine the mood chez enormous as Friday dawned..!

oh dear. look at all that and that's just point one of my vent. i should slink off and spare you the rest!

a dull and everyday tale anyway of driving/parking in london, failure to find lunch and granparent babysitter feeding dd sausage and chips and not using her reins (in the week after other grandparent babysate and returned dd with bruise on forehead, without mentioning it, and then turned her back on dd when left with her for a short time so she fell off a wall!) so basically, i have seige mentality, surrounded by midwives and grandparents with dh in the firing line. i am sorely tempted to take dd to live in a cabin in the woods and become an american style survivalist and shoot anyone who approaches.

ahem. hormones anyone?

Ahh bless you ECATLM! How did your scan go then?

I've had my fair share of hormones in the last few weeks so thanks but no thanks I've already cried twice today and that was only because of some songs that came on the radio that got me going!!!

Thank You for asking PurpleLostPrincess, the scan was fine - which is the main thing. not really sure why the whole day was such a disaster when it was good news. hurumph.

PS another girl!

Another girl! blimey, I'm amazed, do we have any boys yet?

Purple - my hormones are still making me cry at the slightest thing. Last night I started bawling because I had been woken up with heartburn 3 times on the trot, every day without fail I am getting it now, after every meal, I can't believe I have another 5 months of it, it made me miserable last pregnancy and it looks set to be the same this time too. Definitely putting me off even contemplating a third. Which is a shame because I would probably consider it otherwise. I'd rather have ms for the first 4 months than heartburn for 6 months

hi ladies - just quick note to say goodbye really as unfortunately my scan didn't go so well - discovered baby had at least 3 major abnormalities and prognosis not good. According to the consultant this is one of those bad luck things but feeling very hard to take in at the moment esp given 2 previous m/c. This really does seem to be very bad luck so don't want to scare anyone else (sending lots of good luck vibes to all of you waiting)

Wishing everyone else good scans , easy pregnancies and nice healthy babies. x

Oh poppy, so sorry to hear that. Big hugs to you at this awful time for you and your family. ((((((((hugs)))))))))

Be kind to yourself and give yourself plenty of time to get your head around it. Don't put pressure on yourself - you're perfectly entitled to find yourself not coping with it all.

PLP xx