Maternity Notes...

[OverweightandUnderpaid]

Hi,

My daughter is 19 weeks old, and the labour was...difficult. Well, i found it difficult. I know people have had far far worse labours than i did, and i'm entirely grateful that my daughter is healthy and happy (most of the time anyway!)

When i was discharged from hospital the only maternity notes i received were from once my daughter had been delivered. The notes i had taken into the hospital were not given to me, and the notes on my treatment prior to delivery were not there. I was admitted to hospital on the Friday morning, and delivered on the Monday afternoon.
Is this normal? Do you usually not get the complete notes back?

This has been playing on my mind, although i'm not entirely sure why. I would like to have read about the treatment i received as those days are all a bit of a blur of pain to me!

Thanks in advance for any replies.

I did not get my notes either, however I too would like to see mine.

I think you can request them from your GP though.

Also, I have a feeling they bring out the old notes should you need them again in future pregnancies - perhaps someone more intelligent can clarify that for me?

Normal here you only get post birth report.

I believe you can request to see them through the hospital and a midwife will got hrough them with you, but I may be wrong on that.

you don't get them back. like all hospital notes, they go for filing in patient records. you can request a copy of them, either in total, or just the parts you are interested in. there is usually a charge for this. at my hospital the relevant department is call access to patient records. PALS should be able to help and advise. as far as i know it is usual practice to request them directly from the hospital, rather than going through your gp. you may also be able to have a post birth review - the midwives at your hospital or your health visitor should be able to advise how to go about making an appointment.

You don't receive the full notes, no. As cardamomginger says, the hospital files them and for the price of a freedom of information request and the photocopying (about £20 altogether for me), they'll send you a copy. I contacted PALS and they referred me on to the relevant person in hospital records. Took about a week.

It can help inordinately to go through your notes. Check what debriefing sessions they offer too. I didn't go until dd was 3.5 and wish to God I'd done it sooner.

I'm sorry you're feeling down about it. I had a lot of blanks too and struggled a lot. But talking helps as did trying to understand what had actually happened. You can always talk on here you know.

Sorry - was too factual and you probably need a bit of emotional support too. Really sorry you had such a hard time of it. The fact that people may have had "worse" labours than you does not detract from your own feelings about what you went through and any shock, trauma, pain or upset you are left with. I hope things get better for you. And many congratulations on your DD! XX

Thanks for all of your replies.

I think the conspiracy-theorist in me was wondering if the hospital were trying to keep things from me, hence not receiving the full notes! However, now that i know this is the norm, i can go back to worrying about alien landings and big brother watching us.

Thanks again for your help.

xx

Mine were £50 - and about an inch thick .

Mine were £25 and made no sense whatsoever, except a lot of upwards pointing arrows next to the words BMI. Anyone would think that being fat was the only interesting thing that took place during the birth of my daughter.

It is normal for the unit to keep those notes. You get the postnatal ones to take home and then those are archived too when you are discharged. You can call your head of midwifery to read through your notes and get them explained to you in detail. I'd highly recommend this service. It will clarify lots of things for you. She can explain what happened, why it happened, what would have happened if xyz didn't happen etc. This is a service available to you as many times as you want until you feel better. Usually once is enough to clarify things. Please do this. The midwives will be only too happy to do this. Good luck

Hi, I requested to see my notes after my DD2 was born. The matron gave me an option of paying the fee and the notes to be posted to me or meeting her in person and she would go over the notes with me. I took her up on the offer of a meeting and I am very glad I did. It was very informal meeting but at the same time she explained a lot, seemed to have a lot of understanding and even promised to change a few things after I pointed them out. She made a note of incorporating certain things in the next training for midwives and generally said that the feedback from their clients is invaluable. I had a very positive feeling from the meeting.