How long after birth can you request a birth debrief?

[Katy4321]

My daughter is nearly 3, but I still have questions about her birth and why decisions were made.

Why not just call the midwife or the hospital where you had her and ask? Likely to be much more accurate than asking a bunch of people on the internet.

Ds was 2 when I had mine - I hadn’t felt ready before. Give them a call and see if they still have your notes, I found it really helpful.

You're a bit late. It's unlikely the staff will remember you now and will only have records to go on.

Call the PALS team where you delivered and see what they say. A friend of mine had a debrief after 15 years so it's definitely possible.

You can get one any time but as it's been 3 years it'll be more note led rather than staff led as the staff may have left/retired or they won't remember the case. You could contact pals as a starting place. You can also put a written request for your own notes in

I had mine when DC1 was 2.7 and I was 40+3 weeks with DC2 (who wasn't born until 40+10).
It wasn't until I my 20w scan that I began to realise how worried I was that the same issues would happen again. I put in a request but they had apparently lost my notes. They did say that they could have a chat with me anyway and answer any questions I had. I think that that was postponed two or three times (at least once by me and once by them) and I began to think it wouldn't happen. Then I got a random phone call one day and it was a MW who had just come across my notes, had checked and seen I hadn't given birth to DC2 yet so thought I might like a chat. I was astounded.
It was really helpful, largely because whilst things went fairly pearshaped (DC1 wasn't breathing when born) it was the sort of thing which happens often enough for it to be routine for the MWs and medical teams. It also really helped to hear about how long she'd been on the resus bed and what they'd actually done to treat her and how little time it was before she was breathing by herself when it had seemed like ages. It was reassuring to hear how quick the response to them pressure the emergency buzzer was too and who had come and what they all did.

Where I am it's all notes based anyway as it's one particular midwife who does them all.

I had mine nearly three years later when pregnant with youngest DC.

Just phone or email hospital pals and ask further a copy of your birth notes, for starters. They often offer a service where someone talks you through your birth (notes), and this can be done anytime, no timeframe.

Thank you everyone I'm happy for it to be note based. I've moved area since and apart from one midwife during pregnancy I never saw same midwife twice.