Had my first appointment with the midwife this morning and left in tears.
In a nutshell, our local hospital is on special measures and one of the maternity nurses was recently suspended after a prolonged period of drug misuse whilst on duty. We have therefore decided to go to a dedicated maternity hospital with a great reputation a little (but not very) further away.
That set the tone for the appointment - this midwife apparently works at the local hospital and was so difficult with me throughout the appointment. She refused to give me my notes, saying that it was a waste of time as "your" hospital will give you new ones when they see you (I thought they were standard nationally?). She said it wasn't fair of me to judge the whole hospital on that one nurse, so I said I wasn't judging but it had influenced my decision along with the special measures. She said the nurse in question was mentally ill (was that supposed to make me feel better?) - I felt really backed into a corner, her manner was awful.
She didn't take any bloods, height or weight, she skipped through my family history so quickly that I had to ask her to go back a screen to add my dad's heart condition on - when I asked her to amend the notes she said "well these are irrelevant anyway as they'll need to do this all again when you go to your hospital".
I asked about any safe medication for constipation and she told me to eat prunes or see my GP.
I'm so upset, at the end of the appointment I was in tears and I said I felt like she couldn't get me out of there quick enough and she had no interest in me or my pregnancy because I had chosen a different hospital.
I spoke to the Practice Manager afterwards and she said that she wouldn't have a baby at our local hospital if they paid her a million pounds and she had no right to question my decision.