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???!!!

These stories are shocking :(

I didn't see my notes the second time around. I dread to think what the MWs had put since one gave me a sweep without my permission and another shrugged off my tears and worries that I couldn't bond with my DD2 with a brisk 'well, you look fine to me'.

Sorry, that wasn't really about notes, I've never written all that down before

My dd is almost 3 now, and has some health problems, but on the whole she is very, very lucky. Thanks for asking!

My mw guessed my baby belly size and so failed to notice that I had placental failure and loss of waters (she told me the wet knickers was normal)! Dd1 nearly died and I ended up with ECS.

with my first I had:

• hospital notes in a different name, same birthdate similar name (handheld notes were correct)
• mw invented an asthma attack (didn't have one in hosp) as reason to refuse gas&air
• only one pph was recorded, the one I had on the ward was not mentioned
• midwife dissapeared for an hour (was induced on a drip so someone should be there at all times) and during that time apparently I asked for an epidural (I didn't)
• not all meds I received were recorded

second time I corrected/added with a red pen (date+signed) and after a couple of apts everything was recorded correctly.

Oh my fav was the consultant that wrote "I'm not feeling well so have asked lisad123 consultant to return to carry out ECS", which is why dd1 nearly died. What it was was that the consultant didn't agree with my medical choices

My notes say normal delivery 2 hrs no problems. I was in for 2 days!

When I was tested to see if I was rhesus negative, they printed off someone else's notes at my 12 week appointment and stuck them in my green notes for the Anti D injection later on in the pregnancy.

From her name, she was a different race to me and her name looks and sounds nothing like mine. Completely different NHS numbers. She was eleven years older than me. So not a mix up that you would think would slip through.

The crux of it is that she was a completely different blood group and if I hadn't read my notes, if I had had an accident needing a blood transfusion, urgh, it doesn't bear thinking about.

It took them SIXTEEN weeks to give me the correct paperwork.

At my eight week booking in appointment they gave me some paperwork relating to a four year old boy called Samuel.

When I had DS, the midwife wrote in my notes that I was lying about "supposedly" feeding the baby in the middle of the night.

The same midwife refused to tell me the name of my medication, telling me to call it "the little orange tablet" as the name was probably too difficult for me to remember. I had to insist she tell me - it was diclofenac, how difficult is that?! I have an A Level in Chemistry ffs, so its not the toughest name to remember.

Oh, I have such confidence in the NHS.

I don't really want to do it again. :(

If I knew I would have someone available to me, monitoring me and the baby, helping if help was needed, if I knew someone would listen to me, if I knew I could have some painkillers if I wanted some, if I knew I would feel safe... That would be different.
As it is, I don't trust that I can rely on any of those things.

That's not really to do with notes in general, but the errors in my notes are part of why I feel like that. It just adds to the shambolic care I feel I received in labour.

This thread is so depressing to read.

My trace went missing within hours. Midwife was a bitch. Must have realised she was really incompetent and it was a pure miracle that my DC survived and that was quite possibly because I got to see a sonographer who knew what they were doing and actually cared.

Volume - I've had three dcs and I don't remember any errors in my notes. I had good care in all my labours with caring staff who listened to me. The only error I endured in three pregnancies came from the community midwife. Trying to do a vaginal swab (and show off to the student about how quickly and casually she could do it) she missed my vagina (How??? - it was my third child and she was a MIDWIFE!!!) and tried to swab my urethra. Which hurt. A LOT.

After that she cheerily said she would be doing her couple of weeks practicing within the hospital at the time I was due to deliver. 'Won't it be nice if I get to deliver your baby' she said. Coward that I am I agreed whilst thinking 'No way are you coming anywhere near me!'

Oh I forgot that like NAR I was told I wasn't in proper labour so my DH was set home as I lay in the ward crying from the contractions. DH was terribly upset and 10 mins after he left, the midwife monitoring me said "wow, these contractions are measuring off the scale!"

I am so sad reading these stories. I am also not remotely surprised.

My postnatal care was dire. Each morning the midwife would come in and fill out a tick box chart and stick it into my notes. Things like is patient in pain, feeling depressed, feeling exhausted, etc. she ticked "NO" against all of them. Now, if she'd actually ASKED me how I was feeling, the answer would not have been no. I was a physical and emotional wreck, feeling helpless and neglected, and I went on to develop PND. I totally blame the "care" I received for that. I'm still angry about it 14 months later.

Minor errors and subjective notes are one thing but some of these seem to be terrible. I never had a problem with midwives they were great in my experience but after being admitted after delivering baby with uterine infection a doctor wrote I was having my period and no infection despite fever shakes pain and ultrasound also blood work came back with raised white blood cells = infection
I took this up with PALS patient and liaison service in hospital the senior midwives and head consultant and that doctor is only to seer in an emergency situation after a formal complaint - there were other things than just that and bad care has caused complications in this pregnancy.

I would advise you speak to the senior midwife about your concerns!

My community midwife wrote that I was well on my notes as I sat down and hadn't even opened my mouth! (and I wasn't feeling that great either!)

On my first night in hospital with DC3 I had been up all night as you are , as she wouldn't settle just want cuddled and would cry every time she was put in her little glass cot next to me. I was shattered , at 4.30 am finally got her to sleep in the cot for 2 secs for the midwife to loudly open the curtain and wake her up (fair enough she was just doing her rounds it is her job) she asked me how I was doing and had the baby settled, I answered No -I hadnt managed to get any sleep yet but hey ho sort of thing! She finished , wrote up her notes and left.
Next morning I had a nosey at my notes I can't remember the exact wording but she had basically written " mum and baby both well rested and getting sleep through the night" ????

Yep I've had this too. Apparently I'm happy for vbac.

Am I FU&K

I'd spent 30mins explaining the shite treatment as well.

I've telephoned consultat but not heard anything yet. Have anointed notes too.

She didn't mean your pants were the size of a 50p but rather that was the size of the wet patch. As for the rest, you need to firmly ask how they arrived at these measurements without measuring you unless they used fundal heights from your last ante natal visit based on your dates? And they shouldn't have done this....

CyanaraSamba No medical/nursing professional reading your notes would mistake 'spontaneous abortion' for anything other than a miscarriage. It is solely a medical term and has no moral/emotional value or judgement attached to it.

Glad I found this thread. I saw the consultant today who wrote (from previous notes obviously) that I was induced with DD2 because "maternal anxiety, reduced fetal movement". Uh, no. I was induced because the baby was on the 99th percentile for size and it was advised. Why do they lie??

I do find my MW appointments so rushed that I'm not surprised they sometimes just make stuff up. Horrible though.

When I booked in the midwife asked about my preference for place of birth and I said hospital because I wanted the option of an epidural without having to transfer. She told me I was low risk and I should consider the MLU instead, but it old her I was quite firm in my desire for a hospital birth and she wrote in my notes that I was hoping for a MLU birth!

How did you dig up this read from years ago, though?

It's disgusting. I searched "lie notes" to see if anyone had a similar experience! I am writing EPIDURAL in bug red letters in the front of my notes so there's no mistaking and they send me straight to consultant led. I'm also making a massive deal of it at every appointment. I will NOT let midwife agendas stop me from getting the birth i want.

This is really depressing read.... When I was a new midwife I wondered how my colleagues found the time to do it all - paperwork, proformas, incident forms etc as well as check all their patients every 15 minutes. As it turns out some don't, they just write down an impeccable record of doing so....

Being an NHS midwife is highly pressurised, and it tends to cause the good ones to leave, and the tough survivalist types just keep on going. Many of these 'supermidwives' are in quite senior positions so whistleblowing is not so simply done because you would have these people investigating themselves or their friends, essentially. Only the ones who don't keep records tend to get struck off or put on supervised practise because 'if it isn't documented, it wasn't done' and vice versa it seems, regardless of what the poor patient said....

I don't want to bash all midwives/doctors as I have encountered several brilliant ones, it's just the odd one or two who give everyone a bad name. Following some terrible bleeds due to subchorionic haemorrhage and a hospital stay I had a routine midwife appointment. Even though I told her I was still bleeding (bled almost constantly 12-20 weeks) she actually wrote in my notes "no further bleeding". I couldn't believe this as I actually sat in the appointment and told her I was still bleeding and worried about it! When I got home I corrected it with a bright red pen and brought it up at next appointment with someone else. I was furious.

After my booking in appointment I was referred to consultant led care. At my first appointment the consultant said she had received a letter saying that I had requested that i be put on anti depressants immediately after the birth as a preventative measure against recurring PND. In fact what I had said to the midwife was that. I wasn't against taking anti depressants againif it turned out I had PND. The consultant was surprised by the mistake she said another women had it in her notes that she had attempted to commit suicide as a teenager. When the consultant had raised it with the woman in question it turned out not to be the case.

My notes were all fine.

I would challenge them as they're writing them down (difficult for labour obviously)