No More Midwife Home Visits

32 replies

Bonbontutu · 09/11/2023 16:48

Gave birth this week and it appears that midwives no longer do home visits in my area.

Day 1, I've missed a phonecall asking for me to call back so I can provide a welfare update. I've called the number, it's a mailbox for that local maternity unit.

My day 3 and 5 appointments are in the same unit, in another town. So no home visit, no option to go to my local GP or my local town hospital. Just feels a bit shite really. I'm lucky to have access to a car, because otherwise it would take hours to get there by public transport.

Is this normal now?

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showmethegin · 10/11/2023 19:44

I gave birth last June in Birmingham and had midwife visits pretty much every day for a week I think then every other day the last couple. I had a section and baby had lost more than 10% weight so that's why we had every day I think but I'd have been lost without her. She was so reassuring when my mental health went to pit when my milk came in. And helped me get a latch.

If they had asked me to realise to a clinic or the hospital in the first week I wouldn't have gone. No way

showmethegin · 10/11/2023 19:44

*went to pot

Kats43 · 10/11/2023 19:49

PurBal · 10/11/2023 19:31

Area dependent. I couldn’t drive and DH was working on my Day 1. No family nearby and I have an older child. Two trusts spent 3 hours trying to track down a midwife for me. Because neither trust wanted to take responsibility for me and no one had told me that there was no midwife in my area. ETA I would have made arrangements for family to take me to these appointments had I known. No buses either as we are rural (closest acute hospital is 45 minutes). They ended up sending me someone who wasn’t a qualified midwife and then sent someone else when they realised my complications needed the attention of someone qualified. I had to make 5 phone calls to arrange this as I hadn’t been properly discharged. The amount of time/money sorting that out was ridiculous.

DS1 was born during Covid and this was used as an excuse for lack of home visits. I did all the travelling 2 appointments 20-30 minutes away, 3 appointments (including 5 day) in excess of 45 minutes (couldn’t go to the closest hospital as it’s in a different trust).

It is really irritating to hear how wonderful it was 15/20/25+ years ago btw. Yep, it was better and now it’s shit.

Edited

That sounds really rubbish :( care is still good in some areas, in my area they still did all the visits through covid, they still do all home visits if women prefer and women can always request extra visits if they feel they need for any reason and last visit isn’t until at least 2-3 weeks. There is a lot my local trust has does to facilitate recruitment and good retention to enable adequate staffing to facilitate this

Lavenderblume · 10/11/2023 19:56

This is terrible 😥I still had home visits 6 and 9 years ago when I had my babies. Mine gave me so much great breastfeeding advice including showing me how to breastfeed lying on my side so I could relax more on the sofa, these little things make a huge difference to a new mum. She also helped me with my painful episiotomy stitches after my first baby, checking on them every time, taking swabs to check for infection, eventually unpicking them to relieve the pain. All this vital stuff would be so awful to have to get in a car and travel for in the early postnatal days, rather than being seen at home.

Cancermummy · 10/11/2023 19:57

I gave birth in May and had home visits on day 3 and 5. Midwife was bloody useless but that's another story.

SkinnyMalinkyLankyLegs · 10/11/2023 20:11

I think I got visits most days for the first week by the midwife then the health visitor. My wee one is 18 months and I've seen my health visitor maybe around 10 times since she was born.

Toddlerteaplease · 10/11/2023 20:28

Butterflutter12 · 10/11/2023 18:46

I gave birth in April and my 1st midwife visit was at home but day 5 and 10 were at the hospital. We didn’t have a car at the time so that involved taking my newborn baby on a bus and tube and a walk at the other end - many steps involved and we have no family nearby. I’d also had an episiotomy and had been in hospital for 5 days waiting for an induction with high blood pressure. I feel horrendously failed. I have complained to the hospital and suggest you do the same.
A friend from my ante natal classes had a c section and was forced to do the same and arrived at the hospital in tears due to the pain from her wound. They couldn’t have cared less.
I’m so sorry this is happening to you too. Best wishes with your recovery and new baby!

That is appalling.

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