Birth afterthoughts

[sophiec123]

Just a few questions about birth after thoughts..

• my daughter is almost 7 months old, can I still contact birth afterthoughts?
• is it done by a telephone call or a meeting?

(Also, what happens at these meetings if so?)

• can I use this service if I have no issues with my labour and birth- just simply to go over the whole labour to reiterate? (Or is it primarily for people addressing certain issues/complications?

Thankyou

Oh I'd like to add..

I have 0 issues that I would like addressing, however would like to be able to see my notes that were written throughout the labour. I actually had a great experience and this was my first baby. I was very tired and wasn't really aware of the timings etc when stages happened.. I was advised to have a caesarean (chose to wait to next examination) and not really entirely sure why...I really do hope I'm not too late to contact them!

You're not too late. I did this when mine was eleven months old. Mine was a complaint combined with request for birth afterthoughts meeting (birth debrief) and I was met by a specialist midwife and a supervisor of midwives (but I don't think that post exists any more - this was a couple of years ago).

If you just want your notes, you don't need a meeting. You can request those for a small fee from the hospital - PALS would be able to advise if you can't find out how.

Birth afterthoughts is primarily for people who have questions about how their labour unfolded and why things happened as they did. If you have no questions or concerns, then they may want a clearer steer on what you're hoping to get from a
meeting.

For example, I had a failed induction and an EMCS, and I wanted to understand why things happened as they did and also certain aspects of the care I received (the latter was linked to a complaint). The midwives and I talked through what had happened and the information I'd received at the time, explained why certain decisions had been taken, admitted they didn't know why others had, and generally answered a lot of my questions.

Thankyou for responding to my post. I think I might ask my health visitor next time I see her about my notes, to see if she can put me in the right direction of getting my notes.