A question and a WWYD re antenatal care and also moving your booked place of birth.

[GingerDoodle]

Hi all

I am currently under the Crawley community midwives, with a booked home birth.

However....

If I get transferred from home I will go to East Surrey (which I REALLY don't want) and the community midwives (although nice enough in person) are not exactly meeting my expectations. I.e. Every time I have rang the office - they have either not got back to me or been really vague and unhelpful in answering my questions.

I am meant to see my midwife next week however its a bit problematic for me and I have very painful hips so I wanted to see if I could attend a clinic tomorrow when I am off. Having left a message on Tuesday and got not response, I thought i'd ring the midwife during the clinic today at my dr's. Got the receptionist who tells me its not the normal midwife and they have to leave straight after the next patient so have no time to speak to me.... :s

So...

I want to transfer my place of birth to Crowborough Birthing Centre or Princess Royal Haywards Heath and wondered if anyone has any experience of changing?

Also WWYD re antenatal care? I am feeling more and more worried about it!

Many thanks

GD

Have you managed to sort this out yet?

Although a different set of circumstances, I did transfer my care at 20 weeks with my first pregnancy.

I lost confidence in the hospital my GP had referred me to so I contacted a different set of community midwives directly and asked that they would take me on. They agreed without any arguement and the difference was remarkable. I do live right on the boarder of two Pcts which may be why I was able to swao, although I understand there was an issue regarding the funding of my care.

The care I got in the end was fantastic. I saw the same midwife for every appointment, I even had her mobile number to contact her whenever I needed to. I delivered at home, and my midwife was there along with the on - call midwife and a student. I am currently pregnant with number two and went straight back to the same midwife who has again been fantastic and is planning to deliver this one at home in the next few days. So there are brilliant maternity services available if you can manage to hunt them out!

I would certainly recommend contacting the hospital of your choice and asking if you can transfer.

If your pregnancy is plain sailing so far your antenatal care will probably be pretty routine BUT I've had similar experience of community midwives - very nice but not really inspiring confidence. I've had spotting and pelvic pressure since 15 weeks and I've now changed to private consultant antenatal care, really for the peace of mind. Don't know if that's any help or not but LG seems to have had a very positive experience by changing so probably worth it.