What are midwives usually like? UCLH bad experience with booking midwife

[JasmineLondon]

I'm 7 weeks into my first pregnancy and just had a rubbish experience at UCLH booking appointment. Surprised as GP said UCLH brilliant. Please can you tell me what it's normal to expect ?

Shocking appointment with a late, rude midwife who barely looked at me throughout the appointment even when asking personal questions about my previous depression etc - not a shred of humanity - her mobile rang and she left the room to take the call - she ran out of hand held notes so didnt give me any - she referred me to see a doctor about my depression medicine without even telling me she was referring me - and the very first thing she asked, before anything else at all, was whether I would have the down syndrome test - and then argued when I said no thank you.

Have always prev had brilliant doctors etc in hospitals so not sure if this is normal for antenatal care? What is it realistic to expect?

Nb I am NOT bashing all NHS staff, I have always thought NHS is amazing. Just cannot believe this particular person is employed in one of the 'best' hospitals.

I'm wondering if I should switch to the Whittington ... It's really important to me to feel I can trust the midwife, especially as I'm anxious about it being early days ... And thoughts gratefully received.

Hi Op, inam 35+4. My MW is lovely however the appointments are very much form filling, BP, pee tests, poking your tummy, blood tests (if required) and off you go. The booking in appointment is the longest appointment and there after the appointments generally last 10/15 minutes. This is my first and I was initially shocked at how much of a conveyer belt system it is. If you want to know anything, you are best researching it and then asking them about it.

I may not be the best person to speak with about this because I have been disappointed with the level of antenatal education you get via NHS.

I had a good experience at uclh but can be a bit functional. However it scores v highly when it comes to any issues - I was high risk and had a few mc on route to lovely ds. When I did it you were put in a team eg team blue after the booking appointment and would see a range of mw in that team!
After having to go to the Whittington I found uclh much cleaner and a bit more functional and it is in one of the top ten hospitals in the country. I killed a cockroach in the Whittington!

I presume she asked you about DS screening so she could book it for you. I've never been given my hand-held notes until after 12 weeks.
Lateness can't really be helped, they can never know what's going to come up in the previous appointment, similarly mobile call could have been urgent re patient.

Booking in appointments are just form filling, it is very important to you but her high risk 32+ weekers will be much more important to her. She should have told you you were being referred re depression, and sounds like she could have been nicer.

What is it that you wanted from this appointment, I'm talking about your health needs rather than need for relationship building with a particular midwife? Is there a need for medical care was not met by this appointment? IME you'll see lots of different midwives and you never know who you're going to get for the birth, you might need to start managing your expectations now. My experience of Whittington booking in was much like you describe though I was 16 weeks.

Oh and by the way if you have any issues before about 18 weeks (Some places 16, some places 20) you will be helped by early pregnancy unit rather than midwifery service. If you ring the midwife number they will tell you to go to EPU.

Booking-in Midwives are often agency midwives ime.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience OP. UCLH is pretty clinical, in my experience (and extremely busy - I don't think any of my appointments started on time), and I found that my antenatal appointments throughout my first pregnancy were, as Little said, a conveyor belt experience: boxes ticked, tests carried out, not much more. That said, no-one was rude to me: that, clearly, is unacceptable.

If it reassures you at all, I saw a different midwife for each antenatal appointment, so you may well never encounter this particular midwife again. And when I was in labour the midwives who dealt with me were fantastic: really warm and caring. I ended up having an ECS and the medical care I received was outstanding: I am currently pregnant with DC2 and didn't even consider going elsewhere.

My GP's assessment of UCLH was, I think, spot-on: it's clinically excellent, but not particularly touchy-feely. I was offered the Whittington with both pregnancies but wasn't keen: I haven't heard any horror stories, but I know a few people who've gone there and nobody has raved about it.

Best of luck with your pregnancy

Im sorry you've had such a horrible booking in appointment.

Im booked into the Whittington but very unhappy. Booking in was brilliant, lovely mw. My community mw is ok but the Consultants & Maternity Day Unit leave ALOT to be desired!

I would stick with the UCLH.

If it helps, I've had two babies at uclh in the past 3 years and I don't think I ever saw the same midwife twice.

Now, some may think that's dreadful, but if you hated the first one you met, at least chances are you'll never see her again!

It sounds to me like typical antenatal care in a busy London hospital. I'm afraid you'll have to get used to it, some of them are really brusque, some lovely. You probably won't see the same one twice. I had my first at Homerton and midwives were very mixed.

When I gave birth I was at it for four days and saw ELEVEN different midwives. All but one were wonderful.

Community midwives have quite a heavy workload and appointments (unless first thing) tend to run late. Community midwives do all booking in, antenatal, clinic and on call for home births. So obviously they'll have their off days.. Not that I'm excusing rudeness of course.
My midwife was lovely but because I read up on lots of pregnancy things she did assume I knew a lot and skipped stuff that looking back I should have known more about.
Don't worry too much though the antenatal midwives only see you for 20 mins at a time from now till late pregnancy, it's your delivery midwife you want to get right. Mine were superb, got 1 + 1 student at the beginning, shift change for the day and had another 1 + 1 student then had the first 2 again when I finally delivered.
The midwives on the ward after I had the problems with, the younger ones (fairly new in the job) were all brilliant and very accommodating but the older ones seemed a lot less caring and more 'right your a mum now get on with it'. I found the student midwives the nicest, it was like they were learning with you and they were super attentive.
Give her another go for the next appointment and if you're really not happy you can request another midwife.

My midwife was running a little late to my booking in, and during my 16 week appointment she had a phone call and suddenly had to get up and go - turns out someone had been bleeding, so she got there, helped to deliver the baby and then came straight back! It happens - I was more relieved to see that the midwife won't just ignore you if you have a problem because she's in the middle of a clinic :) be reassured by that!

The booking in was very blunt and basic and I wasn't sure if I'd get on with my midwife. 16 week appointment, same midwife - she was absolutely lovely, as was the student with her, and I really feel like I can trust her. I wouldn't set too much store by the booking in appointment. It was long and boring.

I'm at the Whittington and can't complain - they've been really good and I've seen the same midwife each time I visited. Am getting acupuncture there too which I can recommend, I'm aiming to give birth in the birth Centre NAND go home soon after as I've not heard good things about the postnatal ward.

I had to have a scan done at the FMU at UCLH and found them to be very good too, although running late. I can't comment on the midwives there although a friend told me her midwives were lovely but she had to see a different me each time.

A different midwife, not a different me,

Against the grain a bit, but I would say that if you see the same midwife next time and again feel you're not being listened to, request to see another.
You are totally within your rights to do so and need to trust the person you are seeing.
I've been seeing the same woman since about 20 wks (35 now) and won't go back to her as she has not been very helpful. Yes they are pushed for time and have a heavy workload but some seem to manage this better than others and have a good bedside manner.

Poor you. Some midwives are horrible, most are lovely. But I doubt you'll see her again. Even lovely ones, ime, don't remember you at all if you see them twice, so forget real continuity of care in London.

It's a lottery and would be at the Whittington too.

The midwife I saw for my booking appointment was bonkers - think Catherine Tate's nurse character! However, since then I've seen various people. Some have been better than others and hence those are the people I've approached with additional questions.
It's frustrating when people like your midwives or doctors appear to have a lack of interest as it's so all consuming when you are pregnant. Beet of luck.

I had DD1 at The Whittington in 2009 & my antenatal care was brilliant. The care I received during & after the birth was awful. It was dirty, I had to clean blood from the shower before I got in & MW were busy & uncommunicative.
DD2 was born in January at UCLH & my antenatal care was very clinical & they were often late, but during sweeps, induction & labour, it was brilliant. I was on a high afterwards partly due to the brilliant care I received!
My friend is a MW at The Whit & she's lovely, but my first experience really put me off.

I'm under the Whit and I've had a brilliant experience so far!

I am pregnant with DC4. We moved out of London last year and I was stunned to be told I'll be seeing the same midwife throughout! I've had babies in three different London hospitals and I have never seen the same midwife at all.

They really do vary so much. Some are like yours was, needlessly brusque and giving off a whole air of disinterest to the point where you wonder why they don't just quit and do something else. The vast majority are perfectly lovely, nice people and some are absolutely amazing and complete angels.

Having said that, it's fair to say with more routine appointments in a busy London hospital they tend to just rush through them. You're more likely to find them a bit better as you get towards the end.

Stick with UCLH, it's one of the best hospitals in the country if the shit hits the fan. And if it doesn't, well, it's no worse than any other London hospital! You'll also get the most detailed scans there, along with Kings.

For what it's worth I've heard that UCLH are trialling Harmony (>99.9% accurate for detecting Down Syndrome) very soon, in fact they may be already. It may well be if you did have an NT scan and you did screen positive, you would not have to have an invasive test to find out nor would you have to pay. You would have to wait two weeks for the results though unfortunately! Just thought I would throw that out there just in case the reason for you declining the screening tests was that you weren't prepared to do an invasive test if the screening results weren't good.

I'm at UCLH too and so far I've been really impressed. Lovely midwives - but different each visit. I think the one you saw must have been an exception and if I was you I'd write an informal letter addressed to the supervisor of midwives telling her about your experience. It doesn't have to be a big formal complaint but you definitely shouldn't just let it slip by as maybe she'll just keep being rude to people.

On the notes front, my MW told me (apologetically) that I would be the last patient to get handheld notes in my area as they are starting to use iPad's instead. So maybe they're doing that instead?

Dunno about that, Peter. I'm not getting it so didn't go into the details. but perhaps they are held electronically and centrally accessible?

Hi everyone, thanks so much for replying on this - it's been really reassuring to read from your comments that it's normally a conveyor belt process in London and the midwives are busy people.

Wanted to add an update about care at UCLH since I was admitted there last week for an overnight stay - they were brilliant, and it has restored my faith in them. I'm not worried anymore about changing hospital, and I'm really grateful for the good care I got.

I'd been vomiting non stop for nearly two days with a bad bout of pregnancy sickness and couldn't even keep a glass of water down. My GP gave me medication but it didn't work so she sent me to A&E at UCH.

The nurses in A&E were amazing and very kind, although they were obviously really busy. They admitted me to a ward where I was seen by a gyne doctor, hooked up to IV fluids and anti-nausea medicine through a drip. I was so grateful when I could drink a glass of water a few hours later and keep it down! Then a few hours later I could eat some food, and it felt like bliss. The nurses were very kind to everyone on the ward. They sent me home with lots of vitamins to make up for what the baby may have missed in the previous days, and anti-nausea tablets which have so far worked and I haven't been sick again.

The only fly in the ointment is that when I went into hospital I had a cough which got much worse overnight, the nurse was worried about me coughing in my sleep and didn't want me to be discharged without a doctor checking me, but it was a gyne doctor again who saw me and she didn't even listen to my chest, just said it should clear up on its own. Unfortunately it was the start of bronchitis and I was soon back at my GP who gave me antibiotics for my chest ... in hindsight I wish I had insisted they check my chest properly at the hospital, but hey ho, we live and learn! They might not have been able to do anything anyway.

We also had our 12 week scan at UCH a few days ago and it was brilliant, the staff were amazing.

So the upshot is ... I've had a really good experience of UCH and I'm going to stick with them. Thanks everyone for your comments and helpful thoughts, much appreciated!