AIBU

[Foodie28]

To think my midwife has been completely useless this time.

I know they're busy I really do but I feel my midwife has been so useless this pregnancy... firstly she never referred me for my dating scan so I had to phone the hospital and make it the appt myself, then last week I had a bit of a scare where I was bleeding a little bit and I was trying for 3 hours to get hold of her I left numerous messages and she never returned my call.
Now she has gone on to cancel my 16 week appt without even informing me. So I would have turned up unknowing it was cancelled .

Like I said I really do understand that they're busy but how hard is it to make a phone call! I just feel fed up!

Are you in the UK? Where I am (south west) we're advised to call the general number for midwives in our area rather than phoning a specific midwife directly. It's never the same person but someone always gets back to me promptly when I have a question.

Did they stick a list of important phone numbers in/on the front of your orange notes?

It is so difficult for pregnant women at the moment as there is the lack of face to face contact. You should have been told about the cancellation.
Like the previous post said, do you not have a general number for midwives that you could ring in the future? In my last pregnancy (a year ago) I only saw my original midwife twice throughout the pregnancy as they changed all the time.

Yes in the uk.

I only got given midwives number and the the maternity assessment unit at the hospital which I phoned and they couldn't do anything as I am below 16 weeks.

I've managed to get an appointment on Wednesday with a different midwife as I was concerned about the light bleeding last week. So I'm going to be have a moan to this one about the lack of care!

With respect, what did you think your midwife would do when you rang her? If you feel something is urgent you need to ring the hospital. If you are too early on for the maternity unit, call EPU. In an emergency, present at A&E. Your midwife could be in a clinic all day or it could be her day off. She isn’t able to be immediately on call for individuals. She likely has a caseload of 150 or so women on her books.

This isn’t your fault but the system of not having a centralised community midwives telephone number is madness.

If you're worried about something like bleeding and can't get hold of your midwife I'd call the GP. The EPU near me won't take you without a midwife or GP ringing them to make the appointment and when I needed to go the GP sorted it.