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!

Women who are pregnant need to be autonomous... and yet increasingly any decision-making power is being taken away from them. Again, I do actually get it, difficult decisions are being made. But pregnant women who are affected are allowed to question that decision-making just as much as anyone else who is coming into contact with health services right now, and to express their anxieties about what the baseline level of care might turn out to be as further difficult decisions are made. Rather than implications about being grateful not to be giving birth alone in a refugee camp.

@hopefulhalf there is genuinely no process being communicated to women as to how to get help in many areas. E.g. my midwife is off for 14 days at least as she has no symptoms. No one has contacted me to tell me how to get help ornto reschedule the appointments I should have had with her. The number for the midwife team doesn't even connect, just cuts off. Can't get a telephone GP appointment for love nor money. Personally I've found the only way to get help is the maternity assessment unit and if everyone resorts to that they'll be overwhelmed

I said coming in to hospital for routine scans and bloods wasn't a good idea.

It’s such a sad situation I honestly despair!

This is not doing anything to help anxiety of women who are pregnant at an already anxious time!

Wish they would at least make the care consistent across the board.

I was told by my midwife that at my dating scan I won’t get the screening tests but that my midwife will do them at 15 weeks, what happens if she is off sick and can’t do them, do I not get screening? Just seems completely ludicrous!

Worst thing is is there anyone to actually voice these concerns to? Who’s listening to us? Everyone is consumed with COVID 19 :(

I said coming in to hospital for routine scans and bloods wasn't a good idea.

@hopefulhalf As I said earlier, if I hadn't gone into hospital for my routine 36 week scan last week then my polyhydramnios would have gone undiagnosed. I was deemed a low risk pregnancy until then.

Scans at 36 weeks are considered pretty essential in a lot of other countries. They can help plan the labour, e.g. if baby's head is measuring large, it may indicate that an elective C-section may be a better option for the mum (thus saving mum the agony of a long labour that would inevitably end in a C section anyway). It can also help to make decisions on whether labour should be induced if there are any signs that growth has slowed or stopped or the placenta is not working.
The reason 36 week scans are not performed everywhere as standard in the UK is because maternity care is underfunded, not because they are superfluous...

It's an absolute shit time to be pregnant. No denying.

I think it's outrageous how little prenatal care we are receiving. I completely understand there are bigger things at play here but people not being seen at all in the last weeks as mentioned above is not on.

The mantra about saving lives seems ironic giving these cuts.

We are all completely valid in feeling upset, anxious and vulnerable. Don't let anyone tell you different or compare you to someone who chose to join ISIS!!!

I have been saying this all over mumsnet but I think I am going to have to just give up now. It is ok for pregnant women to worry about how this affects them and their babies, and to express that concern, even if having a baby is a joyful thing compared to the other stuff going on in people’s lives. Just as it is ok for those who (for example) have had fertility treatments cancelled to be absolutely gutted, and for those who have ongoing health conditions where treatment or monitoring has been cancelled to be worried, and for HCPs to be terrified about bringing home the virus to their loved ones, and for those whose loved ones are dying alone to be heartbroken, and for those who are healthy but finding it tough being at home alone or with their family in their space constantly to express that, and people worrying about money and where to buy food, and all the other sad and horrible and difficult things that are happening as a result of measures being required to control the spread of the virus. Many people are dealing with more than one of these issues at the same time - I certainly am. It helps no one to be told to suck it up. People should feel able to talk about these things, even if there is no “solution” to the hardship they feel. All the usual support networks have been cut off and while everyone is doing their best to set up remote alternatives where possible, it is still hard. It’s not fair to make people feel like they can’t talk about it.

What ivinghoe said x100

Very well said @IvinghoeBeacon.

Agree ivinghoe! Exactly how I feel but put in a more measured way than my hormonal self!

Also agree Ivinghoe. Don't give up, I think it helps to discuss things. Especially as frankly there are too many women who don't know much about the risks and aren't necessarily alert to the possibility of GD etc. Anyone reading shouldn't panic but at least be aware. It's all very well suggesting women be autonomous but if they don't bloody know what they're at risk of, how can they ask for help?

Not standard at my hospital in West Yorkshire

Sorry posted too soon,
At my trust in West Yorkshire it is not standard to have a 36 week scan.
My midwife is also still seeing me although I've got to have my temperature checked before they let me in.
Only 4 weeks to go for me!

@hopefulhalf Your said very little of any relevance to anyone, and most people already pointed out that you are wrong but obstinately keep on making the same pointless statement. My friend went to see her midwife today for a routine appt. They checked baby heartbeat, something we are told not to do at home ourselves, turned out baby's heartbeat was too high and she got sent to hospital for monitoring. I'm now waiting for you to come back and say how we could test this at home ourselves or over the phone.

Can we all just start freebirthing to keep the @hopefulhalf covid hero happy? How about at DIY home dentistry? If you even look at a nurse you selfish pregnant women you must hate the NHS and want to kill all the nurses. Lol.

Sounds like a plan selfisolatingsince2007. I need a c section but sure DH is handy with a carving knife, how hard can it be?

@BlueBlazerBlack If CoVid wards and maternity wards are kept completely separate where do you propose the pregnant / labouring / postnatal women with CoVid go?

@MindyStClaire don't take any paracetamol while it happens. You're taking the paracetamol away from the NHS if you do. You should also consider donating your baby to key workers. You can always freebirth some more later.

@Indella I am not an expert nor do I work in the healthcare sector, but bearing in mind the overall number of pregnant/labouring/postnatal women with Covid ought to be relatively low compared to the total population of pregnant/labouring/postnatal women, and that these two populations need to be kept separate, for obvious reasons, I would suggest that some maternity units could be 'earmarked' for pregnant patients with Covid, and the other units could be kept separate and therefore safe for all other pregnant women.
Also, most antenatal care is carried out on wards that are separate from the postnatal wards, so patients with Covid would not be allowed to enter those areas. Instead, any diagnostic tests required, such as scans etc. could either be carried out at the patient's bedside (if they are hospitalised) or could be postponed, if possible, until the patient has recovered, if her symptoms are mild. Pregnant patients in the first and second trimester could be treated on the normal Covid wards, with scans and other tests carried out at the bedside where necessary.
I think that doctor's surgeries should continue to offer midwifery care.
I don't believe telephone appointments should be carried out instead of face-to-face appointments, and I don't agree with important tests, such as GTT or 36-week scans, being cancelled.

Pregnant women CANNOT be cared for on normal CoVid wards. The staff working there are not trained in pregnancy management nor the physiological effects on the body systems and it would be unsafe.

If midwives and obstetricians went back and forth to CoVid wards to see these patients they would be spreading the virus everywhere they go.

What about the asymptomatic CoVid patient, the one who is admitted to an antenatal ward due to pregnancy complications and doesn’t know she has CoVid? Not safe for her baby to place her on a CoVid ward, not safe for the other patients to place her on an antenatal ward.

This is why MLU’s are being converted into CoVid wards. My hospital doesn’t have an MLU, we have 1 designed labour room that has been assigned for CoVid. Midwives are already caring for CoVid patients! A midwife has already died after contracting CoVid. It’s sadly naive to think complete separation can be achieved.

Well we ought to try, though, shouldn't we? Surely Covid patients have to be kept separate from all other pregnant patients?
What do you suggest we do then? Also, if the labour room has been assigned for Covid in your hospital, where are the other pregnant women meant to labour?

This epidemic has highlighted once again how woefully inadequate maternity care is in the UK.
I live abroad and here in the country where I live, women are cared for in private rooms at all stages of labour, which keeps the risk of infection low. The idea of women sharing wards prenatally and postnatally is a relic of the past that should have been abandoned decades ago.

Oh and here, my antenatal care is being delivered by my gynaecologist, who can do scans in her surgery, meaning I don't need to go to a hospital for my scans.

1 labour room has been assigned to CoVid. As in 1 private labour room on a ward full of labour rooms. The other pregnant women use the other rooms.

We have tried, but when women are pregnant, in labour or have just given birth and are also CoVid positive, have symptoms of CoVid, could be incubating CoVid unknown etc. there is no where else for them to be safely cared for other than by midwives on maternity wards, as separate as physically possible.

This is why all the changes are coming. This is why non essential contact is being stopped, why partners can’t come into the ward etc. It’s to protect you and your baby! Do you want the partner of a CoVid positive women walking past your partner on his way to visit you and your newborn?

These changes are being made much higher up than us mere midwives, I’m certainly glad it’s not my job as I don’t have a clue what else we can do but I can see it’s impossible to carry on with normal antenatal care and expect their to be no changes to maternity provision. THAT’S far more dangerous right now.