Contacting Midwives

[Jackeen]

Is it just me or......

I am finding the community midwives in my area really hard to contact. I can call them for one hour in the mornings - but this falls during working hours and I can't make personal calls at work. If I leave a message during lunch break it takes days for them to get back to me.

This week I have been invited to anti - natal classes run by the community midwives but they are all on a Monday afternoon at -again during working hours.

Is this just the case in my area or is this normal? I am starting to wonder if they have a bias against women who work during pregnancy! [hmmm]

Well, they are with women all day long so if they were constantly interrupted with phone calls they wouldnt be providing a very good service to the women they were actually with! If you need to speak to a midwife urgently phone the delivery suite or day assessment unit at your hospital, there will be one there to talk to 24/7. If its not urgent, then i dont see a problem with what you have said?

You are entitled to time off for antenatal classes from work so your employer should accomodate you attending.

Mine are really good. In my first pregnancy I worked 8-6 but my MW would see me at 8am so I was in work shortly after. Antenatal classes were in the evening.

This pregnancy, I'm only doing small amounts of work so I just fit in with clinics. I can ring the MW in office hours. I tend to get the answer machine so leave a message and they always get back to me. One MW rang me at gone 6 tonight as she knew I was chasing some results. There is a refresher class for second time Mums but that is during the day and I can't make that.

I agree - getting hold of mine (at big teaching hospital) is very hard. Am a bit jealous of friends with easy access to community midwives. I have been phoning the Homerton hospital advice line when I need it. It is in Hackney in London (I don't live in Hackney) but they seemed happy to have calls from anyone.

That sounds quite bad actually. I have my midwife's mobile number and what she does is turn it off during appointments and check messages afterwards. I've never had an issue with her getting back to me. You should also have a hospital number to call with anything urgent so that even if your midwife is busy or not on duty there's someone to call.

As someone else said, you're entitled to time off work for antenatal classes. NHS classes tend to be run during working hours to make it easier for the people running them (who might work normal hours too!).

If you'd prefer not to take time off, the NCT classes may be better - we had a choice of intensive classes during the day or classes spread out over evenings and weekends with just one mother-only session during the day (Mums are entitled to time off, but Dads aren't).

Mine return calls same day and classes are in the evening at 7pm