Are you able to contact your midwife?

[PsychoDeMayo]

I have a named midwife but have never actually met her. At my booking appointment something was said about her not being available and I was under the impression she was on holiday, but at subsequent appointments I’ve gathered she seems to working on some other project currently. I’ve seen different people each time.
To be honest this doesn’t bother me that much, although I don’t really see a point in having a named midwife if I’ll never meet her!
My concern is more that all the NHS literature tells you to contact your midwife if you have concerns about x, y or z. Do people usually have a number to speak to their midwife directly?
I was given a list of numbers and it includes one for a community midwife team or something like that, but the one time I had quite an urgent query I rang it three times in three days and got no answer and no-one ever replied to my voicemails. The issue resolved itself in the end.
Just wondering if this is normal? First time being this pregnant so I might just be expecting too much! I had a day last week where I was a bit worried that I hadn’t felt much movement but the only info that I have said call your midwife 🤷‍♀️
Im in Scotland (GGC) if that makes any difference. TY.

It is crazy how different everyone's experiences are. Reading the threads on here about antenatal, labour and postnatal care made me so worried and anxious, but not one real-life person I know who gave birth at my hospital had experiences like that (thank God!). I recently needed admission due to a pregnancy complication and the care I received was amazing. Was admitted OOH but they made my own midwife aware who came to visit the next morning to check in on me. Every single nurse, midwife, doctor, HCA I encountered was lovely and could not have done more. So despite being scary, ultimately made me so much less worried about the birth. Hopefully my experience will continue.

I have seen the same community midwife throughout which has been lovely, but I don't have a direct number for her.
I've got a number for the community midwifery office (who have been good about phoning back on the odd occasion I've rung) and then the emergency number for MAU. Definitely worth asking at your next appointment!

Ah lovely. Yes def easy to listen to all the bad news stories and assume everyone has a bloody awful time of it. Glad your experience has been so positive, long may it continue!

Thanks for your reply. Yes will def be trying to clarify a few things when I’m in next 🙈

This is such a shame OP. I'm in Lanarkshire but have a friend who is pregnant in GCC and the difference in care is stark. I have a named midwife and her mobile number. She responds to texts within a few hours usually. On the badger app I have all my notes and results really quickly and the contact list has every number I could want.

My friend sees a different midwife every time, has been left waiting for over an hour for appointments, has things randomly changed on her app without notice and doesn't have relevant numbers like you. It's a.shocking level of care.

I'd Google your chosen hospital and call them asking for maternity triage. They'll most probably be the right people to answer any questions and if not they'll have the numbers for those who can.

I had a midwife for majority of my pregnancy who I had a direct mobile number for, she would text me to arrange appointments and I could text her if I had any concerns or worries or needed anything (obviously she just replied when she was working and I wouldn’t text her anything urgent), it was great. She’s just gone on a years sabbatical though so currently I’ve no idea who I contact as not met who’s meant to have replaced her yet. X

That’s interesting. I actually heard a colleague I don’t know very well say something recently about ringing her midwife, which has prob put all this in my head; she prob comes under Lanarkshire now that I think about it. It’s crazy the differences.

That sounds like a great set-up. Hopefully you get a replacement contact soon.

I am in North of the England and it's no different here.. I do have a named midwife but have never seen her yet ( I am 22 weeks now).. at the 20th consultation with my consultant, a midwife was present but she didn't even know how far along I am into pregnancy, which annoyed me a lot! There have been many questions in my mind to be answered regarding this stage of pregnancy but every time I try calling the midwife office, there's no one to answer.. it is very concerning and frustrating.. this is my first pregnancy and classified as high risk due to various factors.. yet, I feel like I have been left to fend for myself ☹️ but it is what it is! Just hoping everything goes well !

I am not in scottland but I also have badger notes for this pregnancy and my midwife us strangely unavailable. Totally different experience fro. My last pregnancy where i had a lovely midwife and normal paper notes.
I have never met this midwife and don't have her number which is poor.
I was told if I have any medical questions even if not an emergency to ring labour line to speak to a midwife. If I have a admin question to ring the community midwifes ( who never answer).
It seems an odd setup and I have only had to ring once so far which still took me 45minutes to get through on labour line. Then I worried I was blocking the line for anyone in actual labour....

The only time I've had the ability to contact my midwife at basically any time and have her respond was in my most recent pregnancy which was baby number 4, this was solely because I was under the vulnerable women's team. At first I was going to decline and request normal community midwife but when they explained that I would have one consistent midwife (working with two other women on rotation who I saw with her but she was the constant) and that she would always be available to me I decided to opt for it and I'm so glad I did as I've never received such good care from a midwife during or after any pregnancy

I’ve never seen the same community midwife twice. When I had my initial appointment back in April they weren’t able to do a full booking in as their system wasn’t working but I got told I’d have a phone call the following week and they’d take everything they couldn’t do that day and would also book my 12 week scan. Fine no problem. At this point I wasn’t exactly sure how far along I was due to irregular periods and struggling to conceive for almost a decade, I’d long stopped tracking my cycles and pretty much given up. The wait was over Easter so thought ok there’s likely a bit of a delay with that. When I called them up the following week I got told oh your scan is actually at 3 pm this afternoon. I had received no communication whatsoever and hadn’t even had a full booking in rundown.

Unfortunately I couldn’t attend that day as I was working several hours away from home and wouldn’t have got back in time. I then got rebooked for almost 3 weeks later at another hospital 45 minutes away as the one that’s a 5 minute drive away was full until the end of May. It transpired the midwife I had seen had left my doctors and not handed stuff over hence I got missed. Luckily I managed to get seen at 12+6 for my scan to have all the relevant tests and checks within the timeframe.

Not long after the other community midwife at my surgery left and it’s been a constant stream of cover ever since so I’ve got no point of contact at my doctors and have to speak to reception to book in if I’ve needed to see them. However I’ve got other issues so I’ve been consultant led anyway and have needed to attend antenatal at my local hospital more anyway. The day assessment unit I’ve found brilliant and will often see the same 2/3 midwife’s there who I’ve gotten to know and they know me and my problems so I feel I’ve found consistency there instead. Same with triage which is in a different hospital they’ve been great as well when I’ve been up.

I completely agree with a lot of comments I’ve read not just on this post but on similar threads about how much it varies across the country and different trusts if you consistently see the same midwife which for a lot doesn’t seem to be the case now.

I have a mobile number and have used it several times. My midwife is v helpful. She texted to say she was going on holiday and gave a reminder of the midwifery office in case I needed anything while she was away. She made an aromatherapy blend to help with my HG and is lovely.

Thanks everyone for your replies. It’s such a varied picture across the UK, but it doesn’t seem like having a clearly defined point of contact is the norm.
I know the whole world is not going to be as excited about my baby as I am but it’s a bit crap to feel so much like you’re just a number in a sadly very overloaded system.
Ive felt at my last two appointments that the staff were so busy and running so late I couldn’t start asking them my list of a million questions but I’m not going to be put off when I’m next in; I’m not coming away feeling clueless again!
Good luck to all of you with your pregnancies 💛

OP, do you have the option to add questions for your midwife on Badger Notes? Mine isn’t very good at checking it until I raise it during appointments, but I found it helpful to keep a log of all my queries in one official place.

I have just had a good look through all sections of BadgerNotes and found the part to add questions. I’ve already got a list of questions elsewhere in my phone but would’ve used this if I’d found it earlier!