A laugh at the expense of my midwife

[izchaz]

Thought I'd share this as it made me giggle: had my booking appointment the other day and have just had a look through what my MW has written. For starters I'm apparently 52m tall and 170k in weight... This gives me a BMI of 0.063!
I also don't have an EDD, or a location to give birth. This baby will have to stay put, or risk being the offspring of a giant, insanely skinny woman!

That made me smile!! Nice to know its not just us expectant mums that get baby brain lol x

They clearly have too little time and too much paperwork

According to my booking notes this time, my last baby was 31.7kg

My midwife wrote strange things on my notes too! Wrong due date, wrong birthday, wrong partner's name, wrong gestation!

according to mine I'm due December 2014

I do think it's funny how bad some of the notes are in my folder too, but its dawned on me in the last couple of weeks that these form part of our official medical record. I didn't realise, but they take the folder back after the end of the pregnancy. If the midwives do this, what % of the rest of our formal medical record is meaningless too?

Just wait till there's a clinical records audit

Lol! Bit on a more serious note something important could be missed this way putting babies at risk!

Last pregnancy my midwife managed to record an impressive weight for me which put me off the charts as obese. This triggered a letter offering me extra support for my high risk pregnancy. My GP & I had a good giggle as I'm a rather petite little thing who could never be mistaken as obese.

Fortunately I'm not too concerned about the MW cocking up now or in the coming months as I'm a HCP, so perfectly able to read and understand medical shorthand, what worries me is the women who aren't medical professionals, or who don't speak English as a first language - the whole thing must be at best mystifying and at worst terrifying and disempowering (something we're supposed to be working to stop).

well a cheeky one here...

English is not my first language and I struggle to understand some regional accents, and I went for an appointment at about 7 months prg and MW asked me if I was smelling. I swear I thought she said 'are your feet smelling. Your hands and feet'. I said 'I don't know, you tell me if they're smelling' I was getting a bit annoyed. Who does she think she is asking me if my feet are smelling. I can't even see my feet let alone smell them Obviously she meant swelling.

I agree about the disempowering thing! I find the abbreviations on all my notes really difficult to understand, if we don't work in the medical field we're not going to understand anything like that!

When I was pregnant with DS1, the midwife ticked 'no' next to the question 'is your partner the baby's father'

(we thought it was quite funny actually, but still...!)

Embaker- the internet is your friend here. For that matter I can be! If you've any lingo questions give me a shout and I'll help you out. Medical interactions are scary and stressful for most, and not having complete comprehension only exacerbates it I think. Ask! :-)

Some funny, some not so funny stories...
This may be a symptom of my character but I always have to have a cup of tea and read over the notes after my appointment. So far all are correct and many of the abbreviations are there in the printed section. If there was an error or I didn't understand though I would bring it up at the next appointment and assumed that's what everyone else does... Do you get that my boyfriend thinks I'm a control freak!

I went to my doctor when I was pregnant with DD. It was January, I was four weeks pregnant. His response was "Oh, how lovely! A June baby!"

My notes come with a 2 page list of abbreviations so you can understand what they've written- as long as you can decipher the handwriting!

Hahaha blueberry!