Does anyone know if its possible to get copies of previous pregnancy/birth notes

[Farmmum7]

I am living in ROI now but had my first two children in the UK. The hospital here has none of the information on my previous pregnancies or births so have nothing to go off of for this pregnancy. I didn't have any major problems with the births but during my second pregnancy I spent the last 11 weeks visiting the hospital twice a week or scans and monitoring and I had additional bloods and consultants visits during this time. I want to be able to get copies of the the notes either sent to me to take to my appointment in the hospital so that they know how to go on from there or have copies sent directly to my new hospital.

Does anyone know if this is possible or how I would go about doing it? Would it all be on one system I could contact my previous gp for or would I have to contact the hospitals individually as both children were born in different hospitals!

The system is so different over here I haven't seen anyone yet and im 10 weeks tomorrow with no sign of an appointment or scan date yet, i'm not even sure i'm offered more than one scan I just worry after all the additional scans and tests I had to have done in the last two pregnancies that if they aren't aware then they might miss something.

I’d be keen to know this!

You can definitely get them directly from the hospital - if you Google the hospital name and 'access health records' you should find info on how to do this. I believe there's sometimes a small charge to cover the costs of photocopying etc. You may need to request pregnancy and birth notes separately.

In terms of your GP - I know that mine was given my discharge notes (about the birth) but I'm pretty sure the pregnancy notes stay with the midwives at the hospital. Can't hurt to get in touch and ask though.

Yes you should be able to get them from the hospital you gave birth at. I have just received mine from addenbrookes in Cambridge. I filled in a form that I got from their website, emailed it with some ID and I got it via email about 2-3 weeks later! Very simple!

Like you I’ve moved countries in between pregnancies and because of a back problem that affects placement of epidural, my doctor here asked me to get hold of a copy to show the anaesthesiologist if necessary. It was interesting to read 3 years after the event! Although I was a bit peeved to see a sarcastic comment about my hubby by one of the midwives on my notes (he had been stressing about some misplaced items during labour and the midwife was not sympathetic. Bit off to put it on my notes I thought!)

Also, it had all of my pregnancy and birth notes in it. It ran to like 114 pages!!

You can request copies of your GP/Hospital notes at any time but they may not include the green/purple/red books if the originals were given to you. As PP has suggested you fill in the relevant form of authority and usually will be asked to provide ID. If you're in the UK the law changed last may so you shouldn't be asked to pay a fee or postage costs (there may be an exception if this is overseas). A lot of clinics will try to provide online access or offer the records on disc. If you want paper copies it might be an idea to make the request in paper form.

Just echoing others, I got mine recently from last hospital. Downloaded a form from the hospital website, emailed it with some ID and received 140 pages of notes on a CD-Rom a few weeks later.