How do I change my midwife?

[Glittertrauma]

Hi all

I'm after some practical advice please - how do I go about changing my midwife?

I'm currently 25 wks with my second child. I've only seen my midwife for a total of about 10 minutes total anyway, so this wasn't an issue until I ran into some problems.

Over the past week or so I've been experiencing agonising back pain. It was so bad over Easter than I couldn't get dressed and my husband had to help me. I ended up going to an emergency GP who put me on codeine tablets and told me to speak to my midwife about obstetric physiotherapy. The pain is apparently to do with my sacral nerve being compressed between spine and pelvis.

When I brought it up at my appointment yesterday she was so rude and dismissive. She didn't offer any practical advice or exercises I could do to relieve the pain. Her attitude was dreadful - she just wanted to get me out of the room as quickly as possible. Not exactly the support I was looking for.

I gather I do have the right to request a different midwife but how do I go about doing this? Who do I need to call? Has anyone ever done this and has any advice?

I don't want to keep taking strong painkillers and they were making me feel spaced out so I've taken myself off them to see how it goes but I have a toddler and I work full time so practically I can't be laid up in pain either. I just feel so frustrated because isn't this exactly what a midwife is supposed to be there for? Instead I've just been left with a number to call for the physio unit who never pick up.

Call the midwifing team and request you see a different one next time. I had to do it with my third pregnancy as they gave me the same one for my first and second (luckily she had a hip replacement in the second one so was off sick) and I loathed her. I called them up and they changed it no probs.

She sounds bloody awful :(

Oh that sucks. My midwife made a referral to the physio for me. I'd call up/ email the team and request a different midwife.

I do understand you have a valid point about her being dismissive. Re the midwives giving exercises though- that's not what they are there for, unless they've been trained in Physio they could do more harm than good. It's a crap referral service if phoning is the only way to get referred though and they should have been able to refer directly from your appointment. I hope you get things sorted soon