Midwife really told me off today. So honestly how many of you carried your maternity notes everywhere with you?

[Megglevache]

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bugger this has just made me realise I don't know where mine are since they went out with me last week.

How's tricks Megg? Everything okay?

I don't carry my maternity notes around with me although I think I might start. Only so that I can whip them out and ask complete strangers if they can decipher what it is my midwife scrawls across them at each appointment. At 28 weeks she wrote what looks distinctly like 'aprojimeisj a monkey in back soimsio'. I'm sure it's highly important as scrawl goes, but nobody is ever going to decipher it in an emergency.

i only took them if i was going far from home, say to another city. other than that, just to appointments.
even then i forgot them a couple of times during both pregs and to one scan!
i had them at both births tho!

nope. did take them away for the weekend 3 weeks before due date though, along with fully packed bag and directions to the nearest hospital. Of course, nothing happened.

I don't.
Have misplaced them on two occasions.
The hospital keep separate notes for consultants appts.

Didn't with either except for appointments. TBH with ds2 they only contained the blood test results which the hospital could have checked on the computer anyway. When things went pear-shaped with 1st pg the a&e staff weren't phased by the fact that i hadn't got my notes with me at all. When I turned up at maternity reception in labour with ds1 (again didn't have notes since we'd come straight from town) the reception staff - who had no idea what my history was and didn't ask - wouldn't let me in until dh had gone home for the notes, by which time I was in transition so was labouring in reception area in front of complete strangers/visitors to other new mums for 30-40 mins! Felt that deserved a jobsworth prize and was not a good advert for the place.

PMSL at Showofhands!

I only ever "carried" mine to GP/midwife/hospital appts.

Oh, and with DD I took them when we went to Belgium (about 30/32 wks pregnant)

me all three times.

You don't get a copy of your notes in South Africa. So there's nothing to carry around.

In the UK, I think I carried mine with me from about 37 weeks.

Only when I was a week overdue and went to birmingham for the day which is about 100 miles from me.

Don't carry any in NZ but here I carried them around for about the last 6 weeks. I was gobsmacked when the hospital suddenly acquired them at the birth and wouldn't give me a copy! after I had looked after them for so long - and written various phone numbers and comments about doctor's comments on them - how rude. (I think I'll "lose" them if there's a next time - or at least photocopy them before I go in.)

After 30 weeks I took mine if we were venturing far from home - into central London for example, but then didn't carry them until about 36 weeks figuring we would be going home to get my bag etc before we went to the hospital anyway. (We do live very close to the hospial)

In general I do think it's annoying how the NHS expect you to do all the fetching and carrying of notes etc., including taking letters to your GP after hospital appointments (which, by the way, you're not supposed to read) - can't they just look up the surgery address and stick a stamp on it? All the information they need should be on the computer nowadays.

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With DS1, I carried them everywhere for the first 5 months or so, because i was a keener and had to do something with the time I used to fill with drinking/smoking/going out/genreally having a life.

I bought a darling little folder for them and kept them in prisine condition,.

DS2s notes were in the cupboard under the stairs for the whole duration apart from being periodically trotted out when I need to see the mw etc.

They were kept in a blue and white stripey carrier bgag (those cheap ones you get from pet shops) and were drawn on by DS1

In fact, I forgot DS2s notes when I went into hospital to have him. DP was sent home to collect them [thicko emoticon]

Ha. Carry them round. Unlikely.

I don't have any at the moment as the UCH ones were sent back after I moved house and I haven't been provided with new ones yet by the new midwife.

Heaven forbid I go into early labour and shock, horror, the hospital don't have my blood results.

I think it's a good idea to know what in your notes, but unless there is a potentially serious complication in them, I can't really see the point in dragging them round and thus risk losing them before your EDD.

Can you imagine going to a wedding whilst pregnant (I've been to two so far) and having to bring a Tesco carrier containing your notes becuase they didn't fit in your fancy handbag.