Do you carry your pregnancy notes?

[MakeTeaNotWar]

I'm 29 weeks and after a little scare last week (forceful vomiting caused by food poisoning caused me to wee myself and I thought my waters had gone )as well as the fact that I have a 4 hour round-trip commute, I have just started carrying my notes around.

Have I been really slack and do others really have them on their person throughout pregnancy? I haven't been doing it as a) I naively thought it was too early b) they are cumbersome and c) I worry they'll get soggy with all this wet weather we've been having.

When did you start carrying yours?

I had a bleed at 16 weeks, so started carrying them with me from then. I bought a little plastic wallet from Staples to stop them getting too dog eared and soggy, and they were still intact by the birth

I haven't been but I know I really should be after reading your experience on the antenatal thread! I'm 26+3 so I know I should be but they are just so cumbersome aren't they. Also not like I can just leave them in the car when I am out and about as DH and I share a car. I think this week i will bring them to work and photocopy them then carry around the photocopied ones.

With DC1, I carried them everywhere. Even bought a handbag big enough to fit them in.

With DC2, I don't think they ventured out much until I went into labour. And MW appts of course.

Yeah I've been carrying them since I got them but I have an obscenely large handbag :o

I can't even remember where I have put them!

Think I should start carrying mine around (38+6 currently and had had DD1 at 29 weeks - oops - you'd think i would know better! )

I've not carried mine with any of my dc.

Although I may have if myself or baby has a known condition. Such as rh neg, heart problem etc.

In an emergency the drs would do why's best if you weren't compous mentus and being of there would be a daft amount of drs, fetal medicine drs etc.

If it makes you feel better, carry them.

I have never carried them anywhere, they stay at home on the sideboard!

No, but maybe I should. In the country I live in pregnancy notes are kept on a hospital-issued USB stick, which the pregnant woman looks after and brings to every appointment. They even keep the scan photos on it as well. So my notes are quite portable!

I'd take them if I was going away for more than a night but otherwise, no they are too big and DH could always bring them in an emergency.

Not normally, no. But I do have a set I take out when working as I have an outdoor job with some potential risks. I photocopied the original set and put them in a sealed envelope with all the important stuff on the outside (contact nos, blood group, that there are no complications etc), and then just update with anything relevant from appointments. Much easier than the big folder!

Quizzicaljoan, the USB stick sounds eminently sensible.

I know, its the sort of efficiency that provides this country with its stereotypes!

A couple of people (in the UK) say they think a USB stick would be easier to lose than a big wad of paper notes, but I don't agree, and in any case all the info is duplicated on hospital/GP records and USB sticks cost pennies so it's easy to duplicate if it gets lost. And its nice to be able to upload my photos onto my own computer.

I carried mine around with me in my normal bag.
if i didn't have my normal bag, I didn't have my notes.

(it was good, because it meant that I never had to think about having my notes, they were just there)

I do when travelling. I live in France where the only complete set of notes is mine (I have 3 different doctors not including my GP, who is anyway not copied on any correspondence, prescriptions or lab results) and am carrying twins. They are far too heavy to carry in my handbag day-to-day though. Good idea about copying them - will get DH to do this this week.

quizical the USB stick makes so much sense. I leave mine in the car due to a lengthy commute. However, there is so little in there I can't think how useful an emergency Dr would find them. Some data seems to be logged on the central database - scan measurements etc - so they are not in my notes. I wonder if they are phasing them out as mine seems so empty for a very large bundle.

No but I am Going to take them in holiday!! I'll be 24-26 weeks when I'm away so figured better safe.

Saying that according to the anomaly scan there was no heartbeat present so ive got to ask the mw to change it. I think after my holiday I might take them some places...

I carried a photocopy of two key docs - my birth plan which ha v little about birth on it but included dh's phone number, and a print out about a medical condition dd had that was picked up at 20 week scan and she needed checking over because of it post birth.

I keep mine in the boot of the car now but I only starting carrying them recently - before 24 weeks I thought there wasn't much point as, to put it bluntly, they don't try to save babies born before that.

Boot of the car for me too. I carried mine from about 15 weeks as I had a bit of spotting from about 15-21 weeks. 27+3 now, no spotting for weeks and they never got to the bottom of it...

I've been carrying them around since I got them as the midwife advised. I bought a cheap folder to put them in as otherwise they'd be destroyed by now. My bag's big enough for them anyway. It's just one more peace of mind really,