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Original poster

Why do midwives lie on your notes?

153 replies

banana87 · 08/11/2011 20:02

Saturday night I went to hospital because I was having contractions, 7 min apart and had a huge wet patch in my underwear. Nothing came of it and I was sent home.

I've just read my notes and MW wrote:

Fundal height 42cm (she never measured me!!)
Mild contractions (my ass)
Fluid size of 50p in underwear (ummm...so most of my underwear is the size of a 50p??)

Then tonight I saw my consultant. He wrote:

Fundal height 39cm (never measured)
No contractions ( I specifically said I've been having contractions on and off)

WHY???!!!

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blushingbaby · 08/11/2011 21:15

Sorry to here about your bad experiences. It's bad enough not knowing what's happening without (IMO) lazy arsde mw and docs making things up!
i don't think they are all lazy but this has happened to me too and I'm sure its a 'can't be arsed so...' attitude. I'd ask to read your notes before leaving any app and question why they have written what they have. (easier said than done i think)
Sorry
Hope your baby arrives safely soon.

PreggoEggo · 08/11/2011 21:25

thats shocking!!! :(

edwinbear · 08/11/2011 21:29

They lie on your actual delivery notes too eg my notes say they got my epidural in on first attempt, (it was on the third) they say my placenta was manually removed after 20 mins (it was 15 mins), they say my synto drip was started 3 hrs before it actually was....par for the course in my experience.

ILikeToMoveItMoveIt · 08/11/2011 21:32

I noticed lots of lies/mistakes/errors in my ante-natal and delivery notes too.

nailak · 08/11/2011 21:32

my notes say seems agitated during contractions Hmm

MrBloomsNursery · 08/11/2011 21:37

Get a red pen and correct the mistakes, with added exclamation marks and then write a mark out of 10.

JambalayaCodfishPie · 08/11/2011 21:38

In my Antenatal notes she has signed to say that she/we have discussed an awful lot of stuff that's never even been mentioned.

Original poster
banana87 · 08/11/2011 21:42

Oh yes I forgot that last time I gave birth consultant said I had 6 stitches. Went to the GP for a check up and he said more like 16 Shock.

OP posts:
Fayrazzled · 08/11/2011 21:53

I felt my delivery notes weren't an accurate reflection of what went on either. I was also really upset when after a long labour the midwives suggested taking my baby for a few hours to let me rest. It it hadn't been my first baby and I'd any idea which way was up I'd have send no, so it was even more upsetting when I saw my notes and it stated that mother requested baby to be taken.

Flisspaps · 08/11/2011 21:58

I'd annotate them myself with the points you raise.

When I got the notes from DD's birth, I noticed that the antenatal ward MW had not mentioned that she gave me a sweep when she assessed my cervix before starting induction. There was no way on earth that she did not perform a sweep - it was far rougher than the sweep I'd had a week before, and every other VE I had to check dilation once induction was underway was nowhere near as 'physical'.

BeyondTheLimitsOfAcceptability · 08/11/2011 23:11

They didnt lie on my postnatal notes. Just didnt really put any information on there at all!
Not had a problem at all with my community MW (and therefore antenatal notes for DS and DC2). I luffs her

louby86 · 08/11/2011 23:15

For the checklist of information you are supposed to receive at the booking in appointment my MW wrote that I'd received all the information during my last pregnancy.....I'm currently expecting my first baby Hmm

essexmumma · 08/11/2011 23:25

Due to some issues in labour which ended up with me having a operation to mend an internal 4 degree tear, I complained and was able to access my notes. I can honestly say that most of what had been written was untrue or fabricated or random pages removed e.g. My birth plan mysteriously had been torn out and lost. I now seen from MN that this is seemingly the norm.

Best bit is was told that my complaining would never be indicated on my notes so future admissions wouldn't know etc when I booked in with this pregnancy I saw my notes with a piece of paper stapled on saying 'these notes are under investigation - do not remove' Sad

Yummymummyyobe1 · 08/11/2011 23:37

Oh my goodness this seems somewhat worrying to say the least. I am pregnant with my first baby and so far evrything has been okay with the MW et al, fingers crossed is stays this way.

hubbahubster · 09/11/2011 09:34

One doctor wrote that my abdomen was soft and non tender when he hadn't touched me or examined me. I queried it with the consultant at my next appointment and he took it v seriously, suspended the doc in question and struck through the incorrect info, saying that my notes were a legal document and needed to be correct. He also asked if I wanted to take any further action. Bottom line - please pull this up at your next appointment, they must not think that they can continue to get away with it.

flippingstupidnickname · 09/11/2011 10:20

Gosh, didn't realise these kind of mistakes were so rife...

I nearly made a complaint against a MW during my last pg and I'm really scared she'll be on the labour ward for this birth - there's NO WAY she's going anywhere near me or my baby.

She wrote down a temp and BP that she never took.
She didn't ask for an account of what happened (I'd lost about a mug full of blood in a gush at home) and proceeded to tell me I hadn't had a significant loss.
She then further told me that there was a woman on the ward to had had a significant loss and might lose her baby as a result (so imagine my terror that I wasn't believed).
Didn't notice that the TOCA wasn't working: it never budged from 5 even though I had several strong BH.
Kept telling me over and over that they wouldn't keep me in as I'd had no significant loss, even though I was carrying twins, and had a serious bleed. Imagine her surprise when the consultant examined me, saw a clot coming out of my cervix and decided to keep me in on bedrest!
In my notes she wrote: Reports APH at home but no evidence of this on arrival. The next time it happened I took my blood soaked PJs in with me as "evidence" Grin

Overall her attitude was absolutely shocking, she was absolutely horrible. Unfortunately you get incompetent and horrible people in every walk of life. It just feels so much more significant when you're dealing with these people at a time when you feel most vulnerable Sad

Mmmmcheese · 09/11/2011 10:41

i have also experienced this, for example i was on a ward that was really noisy ans complained that the mws would talk loudly at night, bang bin lids etc and i only got 2 hours sleep. Git my notes later that day to take to a scan and they had written "patient slept well and is well rested". I didnt say anything but wish i had now.

goatshavestrangeeyes · 09/11/2011 12:07

My notes state that i had assisted conception with dd! seems as i was only 17 at the time i doubt very much that was the case. Have told several people and nothing has been changed Hmm

Marrow · 09/11/2011 12:13

I spent a lot of time in hospital with my second pregnancy and several times my notes said I was sleeping well when I was in fact lying there in considerable pain waiting for them to do the drugs round.

My discharge notes also say that I had gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia - neither of which I had!

coolascucumber · 09/11/2011 12:25

My birth notes for first pregnancy sounded like a school report when the midwife wrote that there had been "poor maternal effort", this was after she'd had me pushing for 3 hours with no pain relief (not even gas and air). When the doctor eventually examined me (after I begged for a caesarian) he said my son's head was in a transverse position and he wouldn't need a ventouse for delivery. I'm still pissed off 15 years later!

LadySybil · 09/11/2011 12:30

i find these posts incredibly scary. as the consultant says, the notes are a legal document. falsifying them is a very serious matter.

ShowOfHands · 09/11/2011 12:30

There were all sorts of inconsistencies, lies and inaccuracies in my notes with dd. Not least of which was the fact that on the delivery notes she's referred to as 'male'.

I moved areas between dc and ds's notes are absolutely spot on.

Original poster
banana87 · 09/11/2011 12:33

Right, I am both quering this and getting a red pen out today and going through my notes, from the start! They are legal documents, if anything (god forbid) happened, courts look at these notes and if they are inaccurate then it really doesn't help things, especially in cases where MW's put down significantly less information than is true at the time. And I will also be getting DH to look at my notes every time they write in them when I am in labour.

OP posts:
YaMaYaMa · 09/11/2011 12:37

I read my birth notes and wish I'd photcopied them before I gave them back to the community midwife. They were a complete work of fiction.

paddypoopants · 09/11/2011 12:40

The pyschic fundal height measurement - it's amazing how many hp can do this. I had 2 community midwives, one of whom measured the other just made it up. Seems innocuous except it meant that I appeared to have grown 4 cms in 2 weeks resulting in blood tests, extra appointments, etc- all because one woman made up the measurement and the other wouldn't believe it.