Is the midwife you have at booking in..

[vix1980]

The one you have all the way through your pregnancy?

I had my booking in appt yesterday and was greeted by a very loud and unwelcoming, 50 something with bright red hair, she shouted my name then walked away and i had to just open a few doors to see where she'd gone

That was until she raced through my medical history, i told her id had a previous mc and had bleeding in this pg too, she said it was ok and didnt need to put it down on my notes (??) would of thought bleeding in a pg was exactly the type of thing to put in your notes.

So then she takes my blood and i looked away as im scared of needles, she tugged at my arm so the needle fell out and she had to do it again, then said to me " i dont know why your looking away now, theres much worse in store for you".

Dont know if im being super sensitive from my hormones i just found her really unwelcoming, and for someone who was a bit scared, didnt really help put me at ease, i certainly wouldn't want her delivering my baby, so just wondered do i need to ask to see someone else or do they all swap patients anyway.

Where do you live? In my area you are lucky if you see the same midwife twice. In others she may be your 'main' midwife. I think you'd need to find out.

She does sound a bit lacking in people skills!

No not in my case anyways. (Yours sounds a bit like she could use some work on her bedside manner). The midwife that booked me in was a student midwife when she first saw me, then I saw her again at the hospital when I was being discharged after having DD and she was doing my discharge papers and was a fully fledged midwife.

I know thats probably not what you were getting at but I thought it was quite strange how I saw her right at the beginning and right at the end!

Depends on the set up in your local area. Did you see the midwife at a hospital or a GP? If you don't like this woman you can ask for someone else. There are some lovely midwives.

She sounds like an absolute cow with no respect for the patients. Lots of people look away when blood is taken.

Hahahahahahahahaha.... no. :)

Which is unfortunate for me because mine was lovely but good luck for you because she sounds a right charmer.

Well I would have expected her to explain that to you. I think she sounds awful it is always possible to go to the hospital for your appointments instead but that isnt great either. At our doctors (its a large one) there are actually 2 midwives so with a bit of homework it would be possible to avoid one of them if you wished.

Oh thank god for that! Its a really weird set up, it seems im between 3 different places, my own gp's surgery where i see a midwife every so often (not met her yet as my 1st appt is at 15 weeks), all scans i have are done at the main hospital, but my booking in and my 20 week scan will be at this other surgery place.

Just seems really weird to go between 3 places, i always thought it was just my own gp and the hospital, i dont mind going the other place though as its right up the road and free parking. just hope i dont have to have her doing the 20 week scan

In my area yes (although the hospital mw are diffrent so she wony be delivering my baby)
But in other areas there is a larger teams of mw so not necessily.

In that case its pretty unlikely that the one at GP's surgery will be the same woman. Also scans are not done round here by midwives.

She sounds horrid. I have a named midwife but I've seen her twice out of four appointments - have seen four all together- all very nice.

For me, yes. I've only ever seen the same midwife and although she won't be delivering the baby as she's a community midwife, she will come when we're home etc.

Where I live, then no. We all book in with the midwives at the Maternity Unit and then see the Community Midwives throughout pregnancy. In my last pregnancy I had one named midwife who I never met, and this time I have a named team of three and I've met two already - one of the three is a midwife I met during my first pregnancy and liked the best of the lot

If you don't want to see this particular again, then you can contact the Supervisor of Midwives (you should be able to find her details on the net or in your pregnancy notes) and request that this midwife is not involved in your care.

You are also entitled to write in your notes, so if you think that your MC and bleeding in this pregnancy should be noted, then write it in. Add that you told the MW at booking in but she omitted it from your notes.

For me yes unless they move onto working elsewhere. With ds I had two and I have seen the same midwife who I saw at the end of my pg with ds 4 years ago all the time this time. I doubt she'll be delivering my baby though unless I need to call her but thats another story!

Not where i live. I've seen 4 different midwives so far

We have the same midwife all the way through, unfortunately. She was very short with me the 1st time I met her. 2nd time she was better, but then I did keep my answers short as I knew she wasn't interested. 3rd time is in a month or so. I hope she won't be the one delivering, TBH.

I guess I must be lucky, with ds1 & 2 I had the same mw throughout, except for maybe a couple of appointments where she was on holiday. She also insisted on being the one to discharge me from mw care in the visits after birth. She was just lovely, unfortunately she has left now so hopefully I will get an equally nice one this time around.

3 appointments, 3 different midwives, been told that the team has 4 of them. the first one was lovely but scared of drawing blood, the second was a great all rounder (my favourite) and the third was very competent but as welcoming as a frosty Winter wind. People skills are so important in this job, but she had none.

I feel very lucky that my midwife at my booking in was so lovely and so was the student with her (who I am hoping to be a case study for so she will be there at every appointment and at the actual birth). I will see the same midwife for every appointment but she won't be there for the birth as she is a community midwfie but it means she will be the one visiting me afterwards and I am really pleased about that!! It obviously differs a lot from one area to another which seems such a shame to me that different women have such a different experiance!

Your not in Hertfordshire are you? I'm also moving between my GP, Watford general for scans and St Albans city hospital for well not sure but I had my booking appointment there. I seem to have a few midwives but I saw a red head dealing with another lady and I had my fingers crossed wouldn't be dealing with me as she sounded just like you explained yours!

I have a team of midwives, the Green Team. I don't always see the same one, but always from the same team. They've all been really nice.

We have contact numbers of all three MW. I had an inital appointment with one MW at GP aand then a home visit with another and there is a third.

They do try to keep you with the same midwife.

My first appointment was with a locum as my 'named' midwife was out on a home birth. It was all breezed through fairly quickly and seemed like a bit of an anti-climax for an excited first-time mum.

I have my first appointment with my actual midwife next week, although I have spoken to him on the 'phone a couple of times - yes, my midwife is a man! (midhusband?) The doctor asked me if I minded being seen by a man, but I see no reason why it should make any difference.

Our practice has one midwife for antenatal appointments last pregnancy she was awful but then went off sick, I have just found out that she retires at Christmas hurrah! So I wont have to see her again.