Did the midwife stay in the room with you during labour?

[Fabulosososo]

Wondering if this is normal? I assumed it was normal at the time as it was my first DC but friends seem to have had a different experience. During my labour with my first baby in MLU the midwife was never in the room with me. She came in to check the heartbeat approx. every 30 mins and left immediately. She didn't even write the notes in the room. Checks increased in frequency slightly later on as there was a concern about baby but again the check was performed and midwife left promptly. Later as there were more concerns, she would stop for a couple of mins after checks or VE to explain the outcome. even when I was fully dilated and expressing concern for baby she still spent minimal time in the room. Also she would sometimes leave the room while I was having a contraction so I wasn't able to ask some of the questions i had. It was awful and I was terrified each time I was left especially when I had concerns for the baby. At this point I transferred to hospital and someone was with me constantly from then onwards and it was such a relief to have someone supporting and reassuring me and keeping an eye on the health of DC1. Just wondering what other people's experiences are? Is it normal for the midwife to spend minimal time in the room? Do they think it's better to give a woman privacy in labour or something? Or maybe if the woman is coping well with the pain they see no need to be in the room? Or is this how the nhs is going with the lack of staff and funding? Or is this unusual?

In our local hospital (so for my labours) you have a midwife with you constantly once you are in established labour and in a delivery suite. They stay for their full shift and then do a handover. Another midwife will come in and cover their breaks. I found it really reassuirng. They were unobtrusive, wrote copious notes, got me iced water and did the checks as required. A second midwife came in once it was time to actually push/deliver.

One of the midwives told me that the hospital had decided to focus its budget on 1-1 care during labour rather than keeping people in for longer post delivery. So this means you leave 6hrs after a straightforward delivery.

Low risk delivery in a mw led birthing unit and I had a mw with me at all times, two at the end. I was fully dilated when I got there though so that might have had something to do with it.

My first 5 no my last one yes I had two midwives at all times even before contractions started . I was induced by drip so maybe that's why?

With DS 2 I had an induction. My mum got the midwife when I was having contractions. She came checked on me. Ran the bath and then left to call the other midwife, Once the other midwife arrived they both stayed until I had the baby but from first contraction to placenta was under 2 hours.

IN contrast DS had a logn pre term labour with several trips to hospital with those times I was left to labour on my own.

When labour is goign well there isn;t much for a midwife to do.

Not in the UK but similar experience, midwife came in to do checks every 30 minutes or so and occasionally stayed in longer writing up her notes until I was in stage 2 when I had two midwives for the pushing. I did have the doctor come in a few times too though to discuss pain relief options and pop my waters, vaguely remember her coming in at the end too.

I was left for hours at a time until second stage. Once in second stage someone was there the whole time.

My midwife was in and out, but once I started pushing she stayed with me. I didn't mind her not being there whilst I was contracting as didn't want to really speak anyway, or be touched. I was told they would examine every four hours to see how dilated I was, I went from stage 1 - 2 in 90 mins and DD arrived less than two hours after that. Once I felt the urge to push my husband pressed the buzzer and she was there immediately, I was on MLU and there were four other rooms that her and other midwives were looking after plus the ward, never felt like they weren't there if I needed them, but as said my labour was short.

Yes, but I was only there for an hour. I had a shift change just before arrival so I had eleventy million a few staff in there at the end.