Carrying maternity notes around?

[JosephineMaynard]

Do people carry maternity notes around with them everywhere when nearing full term?

I'm almost 36 weeks now - 3rd pregnancy and furthest along I've got before was 37+1 weeks - and at the minute I've generally been leaving them at home unless I've got medical appointments.

Does that sound okay, or should I be taking them everywhere with me in case things kick off suddenly and I don't have time to stop off at home to pick them up on the way to the hospital?

If I'm going somewhere more than half an hour from the house I will take them with me, otherwise I will leave them at home because, excepting in an absolute emergency, I would probably go home for my hospital bags before going in. I'm 35 + 5.

People: Systems are so different in different places? Wow. I have my antenatal appointment records, initial risk assessments, blood results and so on.

I was never told to carry mine and didn't apart from if I stayed the night away from home. TBH I was in labour for 8 hours before I went into hospital, whole thing was 45 hours and I was in pre labour a good 24 hours before that. If I hadn't had my notes there would have been plenty of time for my husband to go and get them!

Between my GP & hospital everything is computerised. I'm not sure what would happen if I ended up going into labour while closer to a different hospital.

My notes are in a A4 booklet too. Full of all the stuff mentioned by MrEBear and Trifle

The notes on encoded credit card sized thingy idea sounded good at first. And then I remembered that I lost my credit card sized maternity excemption certificate a month or two ago and had to get a replacement sent So clearly I can't be trusted with vital medical records on something that small and easy to lose.

I'm 33 weeks and don't carry them. I'd probably lose them! I would probably take them if we stayed overnight somewhere...if I remembered.

They refused to admit me without them with dc1. Had gone into labour while in town and taken a taxi straight to the hospital. Dh had to go get them. First thing they asked when they did have them was where was my birth plan? (Hadn't done one.) Then they panicked when they realised my contractions were all on top of each other!

I didn't with DC1. Went into labour on the way home from work at 34 weeks and went straight to the hospital. They were and I had to tell DH to go via home to get them. Luckily I could remember all the key details might have been a bit obsessive in my first pg

DC2 I took them everywhere

It sounds like a pain to have to lug a folder of confidential medical info with you, I would hate that. Is there any other branch of healthcare apart from maternity where your service expects you to be responsible for record keeping and access to data? I am outraged by the person who was refused admission without them, what a horrendous breach of their duty to you.

Can you take photos/scan any pages with non-standard stuff on them and keep these on your phone if needs be (if you are comfortable doing that of course)? If it is your file from day 1, I imagine there is a whole lot of standard guff in there that nobody is ever going to read while you are in labour.

I'm 33 and a bit weeks I don't carry mine to be honest I even went on holiday 2 weeks ago still didn't take them i might carry them more closely when I get to 38 ish weeks.

I'm 38 weeks and it's honestly never occurred to me to take them out of the house unless I'm going to an appointment! In fairness though, I'm only ever in one of a few places and I'm always always companies by either dh or a family member.

I'm trying to remember to take my mobile phone with me outside the house, notes would probably tip me over the edge!

I was told from day one to carry them in my bag everywhere with them. The main reason being that if you have an accident or a collapse etc whilst out, it is the quickest way for those around you and paramedics etc to assert that you're pregnant. Of course it isn't visibly obvious from day one and it affects the treatment you'd have in certain situations.

You should always carry them around with you

I'm with Becci it's a minor inconvenience but important. If my emergency braking incident at about 32 weeks had been an actual accident and I'd ended up in an ambulance they'd have known how pregnant I was, any complications, what to expect my normal blood pressure to be and so on, this would (I hope) inform my treatment. Interestingly I'm not sure if I didn't look pregnant that anyone would look for them even if they were in your bag so not sure it would help in preventing you being given treatment unsuitable in pregnancy if you were unconscious, I guess for that situation you'd need to be wearing something like a medic alert bracelet that said you were pregnant.

But paramedics are going to need to do whatever they need to do to keep you alive. Hypertension of pregnancy etc means nothing if you have severed an artery in a car crash. And they have no way of knowing those notes refer to you, not your friend who is also in the car or your sister whose car you borrowed. And if you are unconscious, they are not wasting time rifling through baggage and then reading files. They wouldn't even trust the blood type written on them, you would be given o-neg until typed and cross-matched properly.

I cannot see any logical reason for women being burdened in this way, and for the huge risk of their confidential medical information (including potentially very intimate details like previous terminations, STD results, etc) being lost which can easily happen in the hustle and bustle of daily life.

Sycamore I agree. And paramedics aren't going to root around your bag/car before they treat you surely? For data protection issues I wouldn't want anyone getting theit hands on my notes and I'm very forgetful so they could easily be lost somewhere...

I am only 15 weeks but take them everywhere after a early miscarriage in July when having my notes would have helped a lot. I also had unexpected hospital admissions at 26 weeks with dd1 and 38weeks with dd2. So my bag will be packed by 26 weeks just in case, having to remember where everything is when things aren't going well is not fun.

I carried them everywhere on the advice of my midwife and because I personally felt better with them on me. It's a personal choice as to whether you feel you need to carry them around all the time or only at certain times. Paramedics could potentially look in your bag for a form of identification if you collapsed away from home as this happened to a family member of mine and although they would do everything to ensure the woman being treatment got what she needed, the fact that she's pregnant would be taken into consideration when she was being treated and also, could be an indication as to what may have occurred.

As I say it's all personal preference as to what you deem necessary. For me I wanted to carry them around and the fact that the midwife told me to probably drilled it into me more than if she hadn't mentioned it. I also travelled a way to work on public transport so I felt a bit more happy having them to hand. It's of course not as essential for some as it is others, whatever fits your personal circumstance and beliefs on the matter

I had quite a complex pregnancy last time and had tonnes of notes. Despite the complications I thought that the chances of me losing the notes (and therefore the only records from numerous consultant appointments etc) were far higher the chance of some kind of emergency arising where I'd need to go directly to hospital rather than collect my notes first.

I took a photo on my phone of a few important details in case of emergency and other than that only took my notes in the last few weeks and only if I was travelling a long way away (different cities etc).

The idea you need it alert paramedics if you had an accident is absurd - if that were the case you'd be asked to wear a bracelet as others have said.