Midwives forgot to check bump growth twice recently

[Sakura92]

Hey everyone,

I'm starting to get a bit worried by the lack of attention midwives seem to be showing at my appointments recently and wondered if anyone else is having this problem.

I'm currently 34 weeks and just been to see my midwife and she forgot to put my bump measurement on my notes until I was just about to leave and I realised she'd not mentioned it, so I asked about it and she was like "Oh good job you mentioned it! I forgot to write it down" 😑 This is the second time this has happened now. At my 28 week appointment nothing was recorded either.

The worst part is after I reminded her this time and she wrote it down, she says there's been no change in growth since last time and I have to go and have a scan. Imagine if there's a problem that wouldn't have been spotted if I didn't ask her about it! :( Has this happened to anyone else?

Thanks :)

My midwife care hasn't been all I expected it to be and there have been a few things missed (forms, wrong dates for appointments, booking bloods etc) that I've picked up on. It doesn't fill me with confidence to be honest. I'm not sure if it's a covid thing or not. It doesn't help that I haven't seen the same person twice throughout my pregnancy

Yep it's been really poor!!

I didn't have a midwife appointment F2F and was told that blood pressure and urine tests would all be done at the hospital during the 12 week scan. I had to really push for them to do all the checks.

Then at a midwife appointment they forgot to do my blood tests until I remembered and went back to remind them!

Doesn't fill me with confidence

Yep, same here - either forgetting to do things unless you remind them/mention it, or doing them but not recording them, and me only realising once I'm home! My growth chart has so many gaps in! It's really not been great. First pregnancy and I'm now 40+3...

@Sakura92 Same here. Absolutely NOTHING at all written in my notes at all 😳 and I’m 32 weeks. Had my first face to face appointment at 28 weeks. Had to remind the midwife that I was B- and needed my Anti-D injection 🙄 was told that I didn’t need it yet and would get it later on 🤷🏻‍♀️ Told her I was 28 weeks and that’s when it said in the notes it should be given...she still refused. Got a phonecall 3 days later from her while I was in work... “did I give you your Anti-D when you were in? I’ve not recorded it on the computer and you should have had it” 🙄 had rearrange work schedule to go in the following week and get the injection 🙄
Also, that’s the only times I’ve seen her...28 week appointment was at 9.45am - I was taken at 10.55am 😐 The following week for Anti-D was running 45 minutes late (again for an appt first thing in the morning!)
Definitely not the most organised 😔

I’m only 10 weeks so haven’t had a chance to receive much midwifery care yet, but I just wanted to add that speaking to friends and relatives who have either just recently given birth or are still pregnant, their care has been shocking. Midwifery carelessness results in my friend having a prolapsed cord at 34 weeks, thankfully her and baby were fine and she was apologised to profusely but disorganisation seems to be a reoccurring problem!

My 20 weeks scan was appalling as they left me waiting for 3 hours to check my blood pressure etc and give the whooping cough vaccine..this was at the height of covid too! And then forgot I was there!

It's really difficult as a first time mum to know what they should be doing and what to push for.

The sonographer was also so rude and made it a bad experience..she didn't walk me through anything or what I was seeing on the screen that my friends said they had got which made them really excited..I was left just feeling really down and depressed

Mmm my midwife doesn't write anything in my notes this time either, only my bump measurement so I'm not sure what is the actual point of hand held notes because all mine have so far are my scan results. Last pregnancy I got my appointment notes each time, my blood pressure, babies heart rate etc so if I went out of area and had to go to hospital the other hospital would have this info. This time it is very strange x

On the flip side not all trusts are bad! My care has been no different this time to either of my previous pregnancies. In fact she decided not seeing me between 16 and 28 weeks was too long and booked me in for 25 weeks. The only difference has been booking in on the phone but that's only form filling anyway.

Yes, I’m quite concerned about the care I’ve received this pregnancy too.
I had no midwife contact between booking in at 8 weeks and 28 week appointment apart from 5 min 16 week phone appointment.
At my 28 week appointment midwife was running 45 mins late. She rushed through my appointment to try and catch up at one point even commenting that she needed less haste and more speed as she almost dropped her instruments on the floor!
36 week appointment was supposed to be a double to do checks and then discuss birth plan but it was booked as a single so midwife informed me that she only had time to do physical checks. She took bump measurements but didn’t record them on my notes. To make up for lack of birth plan discussion she booked me in for an appointment at 38 (at the moment this should usually be a telephone appointment). I wasn’t very happy with this given that my son was born at 36 weeks and consultant had said I would likely go early again between 37 - 38 weeks.
I did get to the 38 week appointment. I arrived at 10 to be told that my appointment was at 10.30. I checked my notes and midwife had obviously written it down wrong. The midwife did all the checks per usual but again didn’t record my bump measurement. She also wrote a comment about being induced at 36 weeks with my previous son which isn’t true (he was a spontaneous labour).
At this appointment my blood pressure was high and I was advised I needed to go to triage ASAP. I went off to hospital but when they checked it, it was back to an acceptable level. They took it ever 10 mins for 30 mins and every time it was fine. I asked them if there was any follow on/ reason for the high blood pressure that morning. Was met with a bit of a shrug of the shoulders and maybe I was a bit tired etc. I said I had a blood pressure monitor at home so would keep any eye going forward. Her response to that was that it would stress me out so shouldn’t bother!
I know they are all busy etc but you can’t help but worry that important things are being missed!

It's so hard if you haven't done it before how to know what to expect.

I didn't realise a growth chart was a thing (even more so in my area as they don't do the later scans) and it turned out at my 36 week appointment it had never been filled in. Was measured and baby was off the chart big and I ended up having a diabetes test booked in a week before my due date.

I'll know for next time to ask for it...

TRIGGER WARNING

Please don't ever be afraid to ask for routine checks to be carried out or results or notes to be recorded on your maternity book - I'm not sure they're called nowadays, sorry.

My GP throughout my third pregnancy did absolutely nothing; he didn't measure my blood pressure, he didn't measure the fundus height, he didn't feel for the baby, ask about movements, and didn't listen for the heartbeat. All he did was ask the pregnant woman to stand on the scales and shout the weight out to him, he didn't even get off his chair to look himself.

I was advised that during a normal pregnancy it was standard to be seen at the maternity home at 12 and 20 weeks and then weekly from 36 weeks.

On the day I was 36 weeks pregnant I confronted him about all this and he sat in front of me and filled in every single part of missing information from my maternity card, as it was then; I still have my card 36 years later. The day after I got an urgent appointment at the maternity home but I was too late and my baby had died within the previous 24 hours.

My care so far (22 weeks) hasn't been dissimilar to my last pregnancy, just fewer face to face appts & won't actually meet community midwife till 28 weeks. Everything else has been the same