So we’ve been having great fun so far...
We did our first meeting with the midwife and my wife’s medical records seemed to have become scrambled with someone else’s at their medical centre, which wasn’t the usual doctors surgery.
This midwife then tried to take my wife’s first blood test with the largest needle she could find. My wife already has a phobia of needles so I had to keep her calm and keep hold of her. Anyway after the sixth attempt the midwife had to give up, and said we’d have to book an appointment with our normal doctors so they could use a small needle which she wasn’t allowed to use.
We did this. The blood guy was very good and quickly filled all the bottles the midwife gave us with what he said was the correct needle to use for my wife who has small veins.
After a week or so my wife rang for the blood results and they’d apparently lost all the samples so no results.
On top of this, the letters for the hospital appointments never arrived even though my wife kept ringing the midwife who said she’d sent them.
Because this was a mess I decided to pay for a private NIPT scan which has all been done, and they were great.
My wife got the details for the NHS scan appointment through even though we’d said we’d chosen the private NIPT so thought she’d best still go in case they gave her a negative mark for not turning up. The hospital tried to turn her away because all her details were incorrect. My wife basically spent an hour and a half there and forced them to do it. Apparently they had only half her name and a completely different NHS number.
As you can imagine. My wife was incredibly upset, and that was supercharged by the extra pregnancy emotions.
So yesterday we went to the doctors to make sense of this disaster and the manager looked through all the details. Even though the midwife has denied all knowledge, she appears to have messed up the details and it’s spiralled. The manager seems to be a lovely lady who spoke to her and the hospital and is contacting NHS uk first thing Monday to sort out this mess and make sure everyone has the correct information and NHS number.
When we reach the 20 week scan I think I’ll pay for private again as I honestly don’t trust anything else NHS.
Is this normal, to have useless midwives? Or have we just got unlucky? Do they actually know what they’re doing?
Any other advise on things we can do ourselves is also much appreciated. I suppose we’ll have to use them when the baby is actually being born, but if there’s anything for me to be aware of that I can keep an eye on at the time, and keep them in check I’ll also be grateful for.
Naturally I shouldn’t need to do this, but I have to look out for my wife and future child.