Continuity of care - midwives

[Yikes38]

Has anyone had this sort of care with midwives in the UK? Namely London. I thought Chelsea hospital did it but after researching I can’t find it. After my last experience with a horrible midwife, who never introduced herself or made any conversation, ended up being with me for hours until I gave birth to my baby who had to be resuscitated and taken to neonatal (she just left the room and didn’t say congratulations or yano, sorry your baby nearly died) I’m so keen to try if I can have some kind of continuity of care with midwife, even if it’s just antenatal appts. This particular woman really affected me, I felt like she was having an awful day which is fine we all have those, but it really impacted me and my experience she just didn’t want to be there.

So yeah sorry rambling now but if you know of any London hospitals offering this service, please let me know I’d love to do some research

Just googled and looks like UCLH and Royal Free do. I'm in Shrewsbury and Telford and on a continuity of carer team and it's great, really recommend it. I had DD at Chelsea and Westminster and my antenatal midwife was a bit rubbish to be honest, kept forgetting info and I felt more like a number than a person. If you aren't happy with your midwife you can always change.

@Cbd333

Just googled and looks like UCLH and Royal Free do. I'm in Shrewsbury and Telford and on a continuity of carer team and it's great, really recommend it. I had DD at Chelsea and Westminster and my antenatal midwife was a bit rubbish to be honest, kept forgetting info and I felt more like a number than a person. If you aren't happy with your midwife you can always change.

Oh, really? That’s interesting 😬 good to know! MYbe I’ll wait until my first appt and see how that goes. I do regret not asking for a different midwife at the time, I don’t think I had it in me, combination of first baby and not wanting to piss her off more we’re probably due to it. Plus I was having breakthrough pains with my epidural and obviously couldn’t move my legs so a few hours were spent just trying to breathe through the pain until we managed to get a top up from the anaesthetist but even then she didn’t even ask if I was ok 🥲 she just took notes in the corner and watched me cry. It was a really weird time but yeah I’ve learnt that I will be more of an advocate for myself next time!

Go private. The NHS is very busy, you get an excellent, generally safe service ( unless you are a black woman, in which case apparently you might not get an excellent or generally safe service and obviously that is a whole different and shameful story, but I assume you are not black as you didn’t mention this very topical concern in your post ). If you want to guarantee you have someone giving you extra attention, you can pay for a private birth and the experience will be wonderful.
A cheap alternative might be to hire a doula, who will be interested in your welfare to supplement the clinical care of the NHS midwife.

Regarding ante natal care, you have to remember how short those appointments are, and how many of them the midwives do each week. Your main job is to turn up prepared with whatever information, questions, concerns etc you have, and make sure you don’t waste time on trivial stuff and focus on things that are really important to you. A quick history of your pregnancies is handy if you’re not able to see the same midwife twice.

They DO care, of course they do, but it is a tough job and they work incredibly hard, and you can’t expect them all to be Mary Poppins. Sometimes they will be exhausted, unwell, fed up, or not notice that you are the kind of person who needs lots of reassurance and won’t ask for help. After all, the next mum might be the exact opposite, and also want to deal with the pain themselves.

If you want someone to really care during labour, pick a nice birth partner to ask how you feel and advocate for you with the midwife if you feel vulnerable doing it yourself.

PS The most personal comment I got during my labour was “you pushed really well” after my baby was born. They deliver babies night and day so I didn’t expect them to be making a huge fuss of me - they were busy resuscitating my baby boy, checking him over and then stitching me up.

@CustardyCreams

Go private. The NHS is very busy, you get an excellent, generally safe service ( unless you are a black woman, in which case apparently you might not get an excellent or generally safe service and obviously that is a whole different and shameful story, but I assume you are not black as you didn’t mention this very topical concern in your post ). If you want to guarantee you have someone giving you extra attention, you can pay for a private birth and the experience will be wonderful. A cheap alternative might be to hire a doula, who will be interested in your welfare to supplement the clinical care of the NHS midwife.

Regarding ante natal care, you have to remember how short those appointments are, and how many of them the midwives do each week. Your main job is to turn up prepared with whatever information, questions, concerns etc you have, and make sure you don’t waste time on trivial stuff and focus on things that are really important to you. A quick history of your pregnancies is handy if you’re not able to see the same midwife twice.

They DO care, of course they do, but it is a tough job and they work incredibly hard, and you can’t expect them all to be Mary Poppins. Sometimes they will be exhausted, unwell, fed up, or not notice that you are the kind of person who needs lots of reassurance and won’t ask for help. After all, the next mum might be the exact opposite, and also want to deal with the pain themselves.

If you want someone to really care during labour, pick a nice birth partner to ask how you feel and advocate for you with the midwife if you feel vulnerable doing it yourself.

PS The most personal comment I got during my labour was “you pushed really well” after my baby was born. They deliver babies night and day so I didn’t expect them to be making a huge fuss of me - they were busy resuscitating my baby boy, checking him over and then stitching me up.

Thanks so much for your input. I may have a look into the private aspect of it and get some prices etc!

I wholly respect the NHS and those who work tirelessly to try hold it up, it’s tough and - sometimes thankless job. That being said, I don’t believe that entitles you to be cold and horrible in a job which requires to you be present and calming. I realise my first message makes out that I want to be pandered to so trust me when I say I don’t 😂 I was just at one of the most vulnerable moments of my life and this person in particular could not even muster up an encouraging word or even just a nice presence. I met loads of midwives in the time I was there and they were sooooo lovely, so it’s just a shame this one person I will remember forever for the wrong reasons. Another midwife came in halfway through and just held my hand through the pushing stage she didn’t need to do anything else, it was just that small gesture that gave me a bit of support/strength. I understand that 1 woman is a drop in the ocean to the births they oversee, however they could be everything to this 1 persons (sometimes only) experience.

Honestly i've given birth five times and never had a midwife i knew deliver the baby!

Remember continuity of care doesn't necessarily mean continuity of careR.
My trust do continuity of care. This is a team of 6 or so midwives that care for a group of women on the caseload. Where possible the same midwife will care for the same woman, however if e.g. she's been called out during the night, then another midwife from the team will do your appointment.

The midwives do an on call rota for births so you'd have a midwife from the team at your birth but very often not the midwife you've seen antenatally.

It's a shame because continuity of carer could be such a fantastic thing, but the UK just isn't there yet.

Are the Brierly midwives still going from KCH? They were a homebirth only team when I was under their care though.

Sorry, just to add.
You could ask if there's a student who'd like a woman to caseload? They'd do all appointments and stay for 3 days during labour if needs be

Your first experience sounds awful....you should certainly not settle for that! Continuity of care definately doesnt mean the same midwife although it is possible and truly wonderful when it does. I've worked a continuity model. We've lost AN and PN continuity to tick boxes getting midwives to occasionally deliver someone they have done an AN appointment for. When it works it's the best job ever and gets great feedback (it burns staff out very quickly though). Also to think about....you want a (nice) midwife who is skilled on delivery suite even if you havent met before, part of the job is to quickly build rapport and trust. Continuity of care is hard going in new teams as often community staff need supporting to up skill after years in community and delivery midwives need the same in community! So the label 'continuity team' doesnt describe the skill level or care you may get. Ask lots of questions about the model of care in place, and if you dont find your midwife supportive please please feed it back to other staff. The only way we can make things better is if its known about. Sometimes staff need support, sometimes they need to move on but either way feedback from women counts far more than from other staff. I really hope you have a good experience this time. Its desperately sad reading stories like yours. Its such a special time.