Fabulous midwives!!

[ziggletttwiglett]

Today i had my 15/16 week midwife appointment.
This past week i have been nosing up online looking up "what to expect" etc. And within these posts i have found MANY people who have been disappointed by their experiences with there midwife.
Many peoples complaints being:
Rudeness
NOT listening to fetal heart beat ( although as far as i am aware it is not routine at this many weeks for numerous reasons)
Lack of interest or offering advice and decent care.

Now i have to say after reading all these i was rather apprehensive! Worried that i would receive similar attention... And i feel this is generally giving midwifes a bad press!

But i would gladly like to say my midwife today was FANTASTIC!!!
I ASKED to listen to the heartbeat she kindly explained that we might not here it and not to be upset/worry if we didn't but that she was MORE than happy to give it a go to reassure me ( this was lovely) She was also very attentive answering all my questions with confidence and wasn't rude,patronising nor did she say anything to upset, offend or burst my happiness bubble!

Basically i wanted to make this post for those like me who are looking up "what to expect" for their appointment and to shed some like that not all midwives are horrible ogres haha, so please share away with your positive experiences as surely mine can't have been a fluke!

As they say if something bad happens you tell everyone, but if it's something good you tell no one.. well i would like to change this!

love

HAPPY FTM

xx

What a lovely post. I too saw my MW this morning and she's awesome. She is trying to sort out a problem for me and is going the extra mile which I really appreciate.

I kinda think it's like every job. Sometimes in the supermarket you'll get someone who will take you over to what you're looking for, sometimes a retail assistant will smile and stop talking to her mate for 2 mins to serve you and like in my profession as a nurse...I know exactly who I'd allow to care for my relatives and who I wouldn't!

My home birth midwives with ds2 were fantastic - came less than 10 minutes after first called and popped in and out all day just to check until it all properly kicked off mid-afternoon then they stayed.
They were there when I needed them but sat quietly on the other side of the room when I wanted to be left alone and get in the 'zone'
Congratulated me on doing well when massive ds2 was born and tidied up on the way out, they were lovely!

My MW Chris was utterly fantastic throughout my pregnancy and I will never forget Bernadette, the MW who delivered my dd. In fact, I want her to deliver all ny babies!

I saw 3 or 4 different midwives during my pregnancy then a few more during labour & every single one was brilliant & couldn't be faulted! The ones I saw most often during my pregnancy even came to see me & baby on the ward after their shifts to see how we were doing. Such a lovely personal touch.
I think it's human nature to shout about the bad & not the good so it's always the bad stories that are hear about. All the amazing midwives go unnoticed which is a shame.

Sonographers on the other hand

Tomkat79 sorry to hear you've had bad experiences with sonographers; the ones I've seen have been bloody lovely, especially when I was very nervous and teary at the 20 week scan.

In fact, pretty much all the pregnancy-related healthcare professionals I've had contact with so far have been fabulous. Yes, one of the community midwives who sees me is IMO a bit scatty and disorganised, but she does seem to care about me and my bump.

Yes early on in my pregnancy I thought they were a bit rubbish. I would see a different midwife each time and theud never know anything about me. But I've had trouble with depression at the moment which is really bad and the midwife I have seen, who has now taken over as my actual midwife has been really good. I think they are so overworked and you tend to see different people quite a lot of the time. the majority of them are good at their jobs and will help you as much as possible.

Thanks dita...tis such a shame as apart from shocking experience at 20 week scan all have been lovely, esp post MC. So nice to read positive stories on here

Nice to hear some good stories, isn't it? Thanks OP!

I recently rang a local hospital (not the one I was booked to at the time) to speak to the Supervisor of Midwives regarding some concerns I have and to see if they could help me if I re-booked. The Supervisor of Midwives was also a Matron and presumably very busy, and I rang totally out of the blue, yet she spent over half an hour on the phone to me finding out exactly what I was worried about and why and how they could help me. Very grateful for that - lovely lady who put me completely at ease.

We have had a very difficult journey to get this far in the pregnancy (20 weeks now) and although there have been 1 or 2 people who could have been better the vast majority of the midwives/doctors/sonographers/paramedics we have encountered have been amazing.
It's nice to have a lovely positive thread zigglett, thank you and hope the rest of your pregnancy is happy and trouble free

I think people only ever post complaints, there's not enough positives so I'm loving this post!

I'm a huge fan of the midwives in my hospital, there's not nearly enough of them, nor beds and its obvious. Either way they always give 110% care and compassion- I'm in awe!!

One thing that has made me annoyed is junior doctors, they talk to and about the midwives in such a patronising manner and to the patients too. However in the hospital I'm at, I've heard the midwives give such doctors a stern telling off and received an apology from said doctor straight after!- just want to add the more senior doctors seem to have much more respect for the midwives.

So hurrah for midwives! Love to see more post celebrating the hard work they do!

Xxxxxxxx

tomkat I had a little giggle at this! I have only seen 1 sonographer so far and I have to agree a little... lets just say she wasn't very maternal or very apologetic when what she was doing was causing me pain and discomfort. Although she wasn't the worst person and I had soon forgotten about it!! :)

My midwife is fabulous. She sets me at ease, explains everything in as much or as little detail as I'd like, has a laugh and a joke with me and is contactable. Not all of them are scary baby haters like some would have you believe

My midwives for both DCs were amazing, really friendly and kind and I never felt rushed. One even knitted a pair of booties for DS2 when he was born! I'm always a bit when I hear stories of terrible midwives, I couldn't have felt any happier with mine!

My midwives for DS1 and DS2 were both fabulous. Bit different, as I'm in America, and so I went "out of network" with insurance and the same midwives saw me for every prenatal appointment and were there every minute I was in labour. Between the two of them they have fifty years of midwifery experience, and I never once felt nervous or in doubt during labour.

I can't imagine being under the care of an OBGYN, which is standard in the US, even for a straightforward pregnancy.

ziggle this one I saw said she was a sonographer rather than another health professional because she could only deal with seeing the same person for a maximum of 15 minutes at a time. Then she gave the biggest fake laugh ever!

Still pregnant with my first but all the community midwives I've seen so far have been lovely.

Some of the appointments have been quite brief and short but that is because they are just routine check ups and I not ill, just pregnant!

It really seems to be random. Most of the time the midwives I've seen (am on DC4 now!) have been lovely or at least polite. There have been one or two really unpleasant ones that make me wonder why they're still in the job (no alternative I guess..) but the vast majority are perfectly good. Some really will go out of their way to be wonderful.

The hospital midwives tend to have more cynical ones amongst their number but I suspect a lot of that is due to the pressure they're under maybe..

Sonographers are a mixed bag again, and generally I go for private scans as although I have seen some truly wonderful NHS sonographers, I've had bad news dealt with badly by too many and I find a better "hit" rate for niceness with private. Perhaps it's the commercial pressures for private means they have to deal with customers better, or maybe the NHS ones are more stressed, who knows.

As someone else said, like with any job there are some who are great at it and some who are not. Same applies to doctors, which is why I can never understand the blind trust some people place in their doctor. I wouldn't have two of my DC if I'd trusted doctors.

My first midwife was crap, really didn't like her. Something happened after my booking in all and the new one I got was fabulous, I really clicked with her, and also the second midwife I saw when mine was on holiday.

I had to go to a healthy living midwife due to my high bmi. I expressed my wish for a water birth which she told me might not happen due to my bmi. (Very healthy pregnancy though) she went out of her way when she was on a course to talk with the midwife supervisor of the hospital I was going to give birth in about me as she felt I should be given the opportunity for a water birth. She set up an app for us to go to the hospital and have a risk assessment done with the supervisor who took time to explain everything to me. They were all brilliant.

I have a good midwife story too.
The community MWs I've seen during both my pgs have been wonderful. I've seen the same two women consistently and there's been a continuity of care and they've done their best to resolve an on going issue with thalassemia testing.

I gave birth to DS2 6 days ago and the mw I had during the birth was just fantastic too. Put me at ease, respected my wishes re unnecessary internals and made sure I was completely happy before doing my episiotomy. I'm certain had she been present during DS1s birth it would have been a more positive experience. (No one yelling at me that I wasn't trying hard enough)

My midwife is ace

My new midwife is lovely!

I had dreadful midwives antenatally and postnatally but the ones at the hospital, who looked after me in labour, when they were truly wonderful.

Next time, I'm hoping to book in with One to One midwives. My friend, who has a newborn, has had the same named midwife for every appointment, antenatally, in labour (homebirth) and postnatally. Her midwife is still looking after her now. I want that kind of service, not the crappy provision my local area provides.

Midwifes at my local clinic have been OK, but have been super impressed by everything about the main hospital where up I have scans etc - just feel in really safe hands there. My sonographer in particular was lovely.

I've seen 4 possibly 5 different mw this pregnancy (35+5) they have all been lovely, particularly the latest one, I commented to some other mw who were taking the ante natal classes and they said Oooh she's our boss and yes she's lovely!