36 week scans bring cancelled

[UnilakTea]

Morning! Just thought I'd let you know that atleast in my area of Kent they are cancelling 36 week scans unless your high risk!

They dont do them in this trust either. My friend is 37 weeks and never offered one.

I agree it's not fair they are cancelling maternity services. However it's happening with a lot if things. Dp was have 4 weekly brain scans. He has an issue that needs to be monitored because it can cause fluid on the brain if it gets worse. The scans monitor the how quickly its getting worse and we were told to expect surgery at quite short notice at some point. His last one was cancelled and we have no idea when his next one will be. He didnt choose to have the problem and it could potentially kill him.

But honestly I dont know what th answer is.

My other half works in fetal medicine (outside the UK in a better resourced system). They have cancelled scans and appointments where the risk to the patient of attending the hospital and possibly picking up COVID19 is considered higher than the risk of not having the scan.

Pressed send too soon.

So many situations, not seem not to matter. So many people in worrying situations, not being able to access the care they need and should be getting.

for anyone, worried at this time.

That’s terrible @Shitsgettingcrazy about your DP. It’s not right that appointments like that aren’t being ring-fenced.

They are not standard. Most places don't do them unless you are high risk.

@peasoup8 the explanation I was given on the phone was it's not an emergency requiring emergency treatment. My point was that it was being monitored to stop it killing him or becoming an emergency.

And before anyone asks, I spoke to them as he is dead in one ear and only has 50% hearing in the other. Phones are difficult for him. Not a case of me doing wife work.

He cant even get an appointment for a specialist hearing aid fitted. Which is more understandable, but that was cancelled too.

@GirlCalledJames This is interesting, and is one of the reasons (although by far not the only one) why I am keen to avoid the hospital where possible.
Take my antenatal and postnatal appts, for example. They have always been done by a community midwife until this outbreak, when the Trust have decided to put them back into the hospital. To me this doesn't really make any sense?

@Shitsgettingcrazy I'm sorry to hear about appts for your OH.
My mum has scans every six months as she had a very aggressive cancer 18 months ago but I know she won't be getting the next one when it's due

I'm the same, freaking out. They made the birth centre where I was planning to give birth a ward for Covid patients, and its literally on the same floor as the labour ward? Where is the logic in telling pregnant women to isolate and yet stick them on the same floor as the people we are supposed to be isolating from? Beggars belief.

No appts have been cancelled for me as I'm high risk for preeclampsia and 36 weeks now. I feel for any woman who is having a baby in this crazy time.

That will be about resourcing and will depend on areas. In an area where the number of midwives is down, they may have to centralise at a hospital and have women come to them because there simply aren’t enough midwives to cover the community settings. It may also be that they can control the risks to the midwives (and none of us wants them to be even more short-staffed) in a hospital setting. It’s shit, I know. My own community midwife is heavily pregnant herself and needs to protect herself so she is working from home now. I chose a telephone appt with her this week over going in to see another midwife at the hospital because I had already been in for a 39 week scan and didn’t want to expose myself again. It’s tough making these decisions about how best to protect ourselves and the baby.

To everyone saying they didn't choose to have a baby at this time, it's not fair or bad for their mental. What is it you would like ? Do you actually want to come to hospital for routine blood tests, or scans at this time ? Given that women in the third trimester are at increased risk ?

@RainMinusBow thank you. Sorry about your mum. It's a very worrying time.

And not just worrying about catching covid. I do often think people who already have health problems, will be the forgotten casualty in all this.

I just dont know what the answer is.

The purpose of reducing contact is to try and protect the mothers and midwives from contracting Covid. For those who feel they are being let down, what do you think should happen?

hopefulhalf, similarminimer, please be understanding that women are scared - you must know that pregnancy and birth are anxious periods at the best of times without the added worry of Coronavirus. Please let them discuss their fears as I’m sure you would anyone with any other conditions. None of us has the answers but we are allowed to say that we aren’t happy about options being restricted, even if we know there are good reasons behind it in the current situation.

I think a lot of people aren't happy about a lot of things right now. GCSEs cancelled, hundreds of thousands of jobs lost, people dying alone with no family, no funeral, older people isolated for months on end, elective surgery cancelled meaning months of futher pain and discomfort, fertility treatment cancelled (for some this means they are unlikely to ever have children). Having a healthy pregnancy is one of the better things that could be happening to you really.

@hopefulhalf thanks for your input, its wonderful to feel cared about and listened to. OP (and lots of other women) are about to have their babies and lots of us our first babies, so its a daunting time regardless. Did you give birth in a global pandemic? If so, thanks for the advice, but otherwise if not, try being a little more sympathetic to the women here who have genuine reasons to be worried and anxious.

Of course. I have posted in sympathy with all of those things, some of which I and members of my family are dealing with alongside being due to give birth without the support networks that normally women would expect to be in place. Many women whose pregnant are also dealing with those difficult situations alongside and it is insulting to imply that they don’t understand. Some of the women on this thread are not having a “healthy” pregnancy, and pregnancy and childbirth remain one of the riskier things women go through, even if it is a happy thing they have chosen. I know that the prevailing opinion on MN is that finding any of the Coronavirus-related restrictions hard makes you a feeble whiner who wants to put others at risk, but the kind thing to do is to allow people to discuss and support each other.

I'm just advocating some perspective. You will all give birth safely, the vast majority of you will have healthy babies. No it won't be the way you invisaged, 2020 isn't turning out the way any of us thought it would. Think of Shemina Begum giving birth in an unsafe refugee camp with no medical support aged 19.

No, you are trying to shut down women discussing their anxieties around ante/postnatal care and childbirth, and it is unfair. It also doesn’t achieve your aim of “perspective”, it just makes women more likely internalise their fears and not deal with them. It goes without saying that what Shamina Begum went through was horrific and we shouldn’t have to list all the sympathies we have with those less fortunate before we are entitled to talk about things that cause us anxiety in the current situation. We all know that there are people worse off than ourselves, we all know that HCPs are putting themselves and their families at risk to care for us, and are doing their best under difficult circumstances. Now the one thing you can do is allow women to get their heads around the constantly changing restrictions and expectations around their healthcare and birth without trying to make them feel like feeble whiners for finding that hard. We will most of us be fine, but up until Coronavirus hit, mumsnet was a place where generally it was accepted that pregnancy and childbirth and the postnatal period are anxious, risky times, and that women needed to be allowed to discuss that, and even with Coronavirus that is no different.

I am not stutting anything down. Who was it that said "when the facts change, I change my mind," Yes pre-covid pregnancy/ giving birth was relatively anxiety producing. Now most of us (the NHS) have bigger worries. I am absolutely allowed to state that.

Think of Shemina Begum giving birth in an unsafe refugee camp with no medical support aged 19.

What has that got to do with anything?

How is thay in anyway comparable. Lots of women all over the world give birth in less than ideal circumstances. That doesnt mean that women in this country should just be fine and not anxious to having the usual medical checks.

Women giving birth, is risky in itself.

Jesus wept, my youngest is 9. Its bene a long time since I gave birth. It's not difficult to have sympathy with women pregnant, in the middle of a pandemic worrying they arent getting the medical checks and support they would be doing if they were pregnant a year ago.

My dp condition could potentially kill him. But i can still have empathy.

I hate the 'why are you moaning, people have it worse'. And what? Theres always someone who has it worse.

People are allowed to be anxious. Especially when pregnant. Especially when they access medical care.

It's such a poor attitude.

Now most of us (the NHS) have bigger worries. I am absolutely allowed to state that.

The nhs isnt worried about women giving birth in less than ideal circumstances? Arent worried about potentially dangerous conditions being missed?

I would disagree. They are trying to balance it.

And yes, while vivid is a huge issue. On a personal level, people will worry about what impacts them.

Theres room to care for people, for any reasons. Not only when its covid related.

Having a healthy pregnancy is one of the better things that could be happening to you really.

How on earth can we know the pregnancy is healthy without urine, BP and baby heart rate checks? The reason those checks are seen as so important under normal circumstances is that they can pick up a wide range of reasonably common complications.

I'm only 26 weeks so hoping things will have eased by the time I'm due, but missing out on key checkups across the population of pregnant women does mean things will be missed. Women and babies will suffer because of this.

I'm not saying the wrong decisions have been taken, difficult calls are being made in all walks of life ATM. But I think it's unfair to judge women for being concerned about missing appointments that are seen as essential under normal circumstances. I presume a year ago a woman who missed these checks would've been flagged as a risk, and now the system isn't providing them.

Lastly, yes I'm happy to take the risk of contracting covid by going to an antenatal unit for checkups. Most of us will get it at some point unless there's rapid progress with a vaccine. We're all supposed to be laying low from a social responsibility pov, lessening the burden on the NHS so there is less pressure on hospital beds. Not so that we never catch it. If I caught it now and contributed to that pressure, I could live with that if I caught it going to an important health check-up. It's absolutely an acceptable risk for me (and I say that as an asthmatic whose asthma is worse in this pregnancy).

The relative risk has changed though that cannot be denied.

Well said @ IvinghoeBeacon

@hopefulhalf can I ask you a question, are you pregnant right now? If not did you give birth/ were you pregnant when services were being reduced/and or cut?! If the answer is no I don’t think it’s fair to make those comments at all, since you have no idea how it actually feels to be facing the reality that you won’t be getting the care and support many women before us have received! it’s not just about getting reassurance, the things that we are being denied is BASIC maternity care, not even mentioning extra scans, they are cancelling routine appointments left right and centre!

My pregnancy is ‘High risk’ so therefore yes I am frightened, as are many other women.

I get that they are trying to reduce the risk to pregnant women but as it keeps being mentioned the risk is to those in the third trimester, what about those in the first and second or those that can be supported by a phone call weekly to reassure - in my case I need support for my mental health - this could be done on the phone but is not being done!

Anyway on a positive note I might write to my local MP and see if there is anything that can be done about the local maternity cuts and I would urge anyone else who feels let down to do the same.

This honestly can not be right that we are missing out on the standard support other women before us have received?

As a previous poster said even the midwives are not happy about this.