Should I be concerned that midwife did this?

[Fluffyfish]

I had my 34 week midwife appt yesterday (second pregnancy). I've had a lot of braxton hicks and other twinges including faint period pains over past week and she seemed utterly unconcerned. Fine because maybe this is normal but to the point where I didn't feel she was listening and if I didn't have a 34 week scan booked in for this week too I would have asked to see another midwife to check.

Anyway she also wrote in my notes that the height of uterus was 34cm. This is exactly what it should be. Except she didn't measure it. Not with a tape measure, not with her hands - nothing. And at 27 weeks it was 31 cm so I have been measuring big so it is very unlikely it would be bang on target now (in fact I was referred for extra scan at 27 weeks to check because it was big - turns out it is just a big baby).

Should I be raising this with a senior midwife at the hospital?

I would raise it. She should be explaining things and definitely measuring you.

I was once told by a consultant that they don't always measure any more (this was 10 years ago!). It may be that she is experienced and believes your bump to look right for dates.

I think a huge part of the job of a midwife is to relax the patient, listen to them and reassure them. She clearly hasn't done that! If you saw at the appointment that she'd written the bump measurement I think you should hve said something then. Actually even if you hadn't I would have mentioned it as you had measured bigger previously.

I don't think you would be out of order to complain but I also don't think it woul be terrible to leave it as you have a scan booked soon anyway!

It is helpful Noteafor me as I have scan later today so think I will just raise it with them and make sure they are happy with my progress and size of baby. I might show them the notes too and say this wasn;t based on measurement.

I should have mentioned at time but you know how it is - cat got my tongue!

Hope the scan goes well. Definitely worth mentioning to the sonography that the recent 'measurement' wasn't actually a measurement at all! They will do a good check. I guess it only really matters how big the baby is and how much fluid there is, not how big the bump is! You'll know that everything is fine by the end of today!

I mentioned at scan (all fine - phew) and they got the sister in to chat to me. She said some midwives measure with hands and maybe I didn't notice her do this but that she will talk to her about it to check she is doing it properly and about making it obvious she is doing so. She was nice.