Why do midwives lie on your notes?

[banana87]

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???!!!

Oh! Same thing happened to me Broodzilla and Ellmum!
My notes were full of mistakes and nonsense but I never thought to ask for them to be changed, I wish I had now.

mine signed my drug chart for drugs they HADN'T GIVEN ME! (I know this for sure, I begged for them over 2 shifts!!! I got none of my drugs at all over that period. all signed for and present and correct on drug chart though and now I look mental when I claim I didn't have them!

I'm also in hospital at the moment & was just told by a midwife that I am being kept in because of "the bleeding". She also said "it's not the first time it's happened". I said "Do you mean the tiny bit of spotting I had this morning?" and she said "yes, the bleeding - it's the third time you've been in with it and you've been bleeding again" in a scolding kind of voice. I haven't a clue what she's talking about as I had some spotting at 4 weeks & nothing until now (almost 30 weeks).

The Dr told me I was staying in case the mild contractions I've been having got worse. I told the midwife that & she said "No, no" and started taking about the "pelvic loss" again! I gave up but will be interested to see what my notes say in the morning

Jesus! This thread is terrible!

This is disgraceful. I am a teacher and when I have meetings with parents I take notes and we both sign them at the end of the meeting. I think this should happen in medical appointments too.

Due to my blood type I need anti d at various points. I left our county hospital and went to local birth centre after birth. Before leaving this centre I asked about anti d. They looked into it and said I'd had it. Ummm think I'd remember the needle. It transpired the anti d was signed out under my name and it said on my chart I'd had it but it was still in the fridge.
AIBU to think the person responsible should be disciplined? FWIW I believe worst case scenario is without it I would miscarry in a future pg.

My birth notes with DS were largely accurate but without going into too much detail, there were some fairly major errors.

It said I was 10cm dilated but I heard someone say (as did DH) that I was still only 4cm but the baby would die if they didn't get him out as quick as possible.

Or that the midwife did not examine me internally (she did, often) against my wishes and the doctor saying "don't do that anymore".

Oh and it didn't mention the major drugs error that almost killed DS. When I followed up where the planned investigation into my care had got to, the consultant looked at my notes and was confused as all looked fine in them. When other doctors confirmed some of the issues I raised, she started another inquiry which got...oh hang on....nowhere.

My DH is still raging about it and we won't use the same hospital for DS2. I just wanted to move on from the whole experience and forget it. I don't think it was a planned decision to make cover-ups - just people editing out their errors everywhere and together it built up into a description of events that doesn't hold true.

Coolasacucumber I had 'poor maternal effort' written on my notes after I'd been pushing for 2 and a half hours with only gas and air. Ds was stuck! I'm wondering now if it means that I needed intervention rather than didn't put any welly into it? I was pissed off with that too.

My midwife hasn't even put on my notes that I have PGP or Placenta Previa, even though I asked her to put them in there, last time I saw her.

I also have a few tick sheets to show risk of various things, clipped into my notes, which I have never been asked about, so she has basically ticked what she thought, including family history and whether I have varicous veins.

My husband swears it doesn't make much difference though, as he said he has never seen a midwife so much as glance through my notes when I have been in hospital giving birth. He just says as long as someone is with you to make sure they tell the midwife about any possible problems e.g. PGP, so don't open my wife's legs too wide. I'm lucky though because he is great when I am in labour.

My delivery notes from my last birth said mother requested skin to skin contact to stop. More like midwife passed my baby to my husband whilst she gave me various medications to try and control my sudden violent vomiting. In fairness to the midwife though, what else was she meant to do in that situation and chances are she could of been in trouble for taking my baby from me without my 'permission', which I clearly wasn't in a position to be giving.

It does make a huge difference, I can't take my complaint about the multiple drug errors because the drug chart is all nicely signed so noone believes me... and I've heard of it happeneing to other people in the same unit since and I can't do anything to stop it happening

Some of these are awful.

How do you get to see your notes? My children are in their teens now. Is it too late for me to read mine?

I'm a Nurse and know very well how to write notes, and even I didn't notice that vital information had been missed from my community MW records. It took my MW mother to question why they had done a blood test, and not documented the reason for it. MW also failed to document I had complained of swollen feet and ankles and didn't even look at them! This was a one off MW, never met her before, and hopefully she will not be doing any more of my appointments (stupid middle aged woman with pigtails does not give me confidence!)

Lots of issues with my notes which i have seen many times, i was even shown them before i left hospital (not sure if it was because i was staff or they knew theyd fucked up).

The fact that they didnt record which sutures they used is now a major point in my medical negligence claim.

I document everything as it happens, thats how i was taught to write notes

@ 'poor maternal effort'

What a terrible thing to write! How can that be a medical fact!

AFAIK theyre no longer allowed to write 'failure to progress' as it is a real trigger for depression in some women

They're still writing that my previous CS was due to "failure to progress" in my current notes

This is shocking. Are any midwives reading this? If so, what are your thoughts?

I was treated like scum by my midwife because I was 17, scared and hadn't been with my partner for very long.

At my '12 week' scan (i was actually 20 weeks, I knew the exact day I conceived) I was told I'd got my dates wrong as the fetus was small.

At 28 weeks dd stopped moving completely. I rang my midwife, told her this and that I'd had extremely itchy legs, she dismissed me and told me to go to my GP. GP told me to go to my midwife. By the time I'd convinced her to see my I had Pre-eclampsia, she couldn't find a heartbeat and I was rushed into hospital for a c-section at 28+4.

At hospital I was scanned again, the woman found the heartbeat instantly then asked me if I wanted some more scan pictures etc, as if everything was fine.

I then got taken to a room, where a Dr told me there was serious problems and I needed a c-section right away.

Once in theatre the the people in there laughed, joked and roundly slagged me off saying 'how old is this one? About 15?' Etc. I was mortified, in shock and scared that my baby was dying.

Through my pregnancy I saw a midwife twice. One initial appointment followed by a scan weeks later, then again on the day I gave birth.

She was born weighing 1lb 11oz and was on SCBU for 12 weeks, thankfully the staff there were incredible.

I don't know mosschops, I was quite hacked off when I read that. I was exhausted before I even got to hospital and hadn't slept for a day and a half when ds was born. Contractions were constant and fecking painful and after all that pushing he wasn't moving down so they gave me a spinal block in case they had to do a cs so I couldn't feel to push while they were trying ventusr and forceps so I wouldn't be bloody surprised if I didn't put much more effort in. I was done in!

Southerncomfortd that's shit! I hope your dd is ok?

@ SouthernComforts!

Mine lied on my notes several of them said they'd checked my stitches and no one did.

They put on there that I was offered ice too for it and declined! I would have loved some ice.

In reality no one had time to give me any help apart from one charmer who complained my cubicle was untidy when I dropped my bag and was unable to pick it up.

Lots of lies on my notes too.

:(

Ultimately I was readmitted with very serious complications which would have been avoided had I been checked!

ellmum my 3rd baby was born in the hospital waiting area, after no monitoring at all, even though I had been induced.

The midwifes had called security to remove my husband from the ward when he refused to go home because visiting time was over. The midwifes had been insistant that I was not in labour and just thought I was. I gave birth on the floor with just my husband there. Even when my husband had screamed down the corridor that the head was coming out, he said a midwife looked out of the staffroom door and just went back in. A midwife coming into the hospital ready to start her shift, took me in a wheelchair up to the labour ward, where they insisted I signed a disclaimer which said I had an unexpected quick labour (it had actually been 9.5 hours since I first said I was definately in labour) before they would cut the cord and deliver the placenta.

My HV at the time was horrified when I told her and advised me to put in a formal complaint, but I am ashamed to admit I didn't. I just wanted to put the whole thing behind me and enjoy my baby.

You do wonder why some people stay in a profession they are surrounded by people they clearly despise.
The implications for mistakes I guess are so serious that covering them up seems the only option, it puts me right off attending a hospital unless my head was hanging off.

My MW insisted on writing up a previous miscarriage as a "spontaneous abortion". This may have been technically correct terminology but I'd rather not have had it on my notes.