Midwife prediction 20 weeks off

[Robinbuildsbears]

This hasn't happened to me, but to my SIL instead.

SIL has been feeling like she might be pregnant for a little while, but didn't stop getting her periods and has been on the pill so didn't take a pregnancy test until she started to get bigger in the belly.

She got her initial midwife appointment 2 weeks after calling with a positive test, where the midwife felt her belly and decided that she couldn't feel her uterus, so wrote down an estimate of 7 weeks. SIL insisted on getting a scan earlier than 5 weeks away, so the midwife reluctantly agreed to give her an appointment a few days later (today).

The scan confirmed that she is approximately 27 weeks along, literally 20 weeks further than the first midwife had said. Obviously a big shock for everyone in the family, and also for the staff at the hospital, if the first midwife hadn't written down in her notes 7 weeks they wouldn't have believed it.

How does a trained professional midwife manage to get it so wrong? Is it really that difficult to tell, does this sort of thing happen often? Or was this midwife just completely incompetent? My feeling is that SIL should put in a complaint about her and that she clearly needs retraining or something, or am I being too harsh?

I don't think it's worth a complaint as there was no negative outcome, was there? She still got the scan and is now being correctly cared for.

However, she can ask not to see that midwife in any subsequent appointments. You can do that for any reason without expressing a complaint.

Why would your sister need to complain? The women made a mistake, it happens.

I suspect she thought that your SIL would have known months ago if she was as pregnant as that, so she started feeling for the top of the uterus when she was already over the uterus. Unless, of course, your SIL is significantly obese, which can make it hard to palpate anything at all.

My abdomen was palpitated by a GP and told I was under 12 weeks, 2 weeks later the scan showed I was 21 weeks.

Some people have long abdomen or carry weight that can hide a pregnancy better.

Is your SIL large?

I think I'd concentrate on coping with the very soon arriving baby rather than complaining about the MW tbh.
Your SIL thought she could be but left it so she took the risk of ignoring it until now.

Personal responsibility and all that.

I think you’re being too harsh here op. Your sil thought she might have been pregnant so even being on the pill, she could have easily taken a test to find out. She felt it for months and waited until she started getting bigger.

I am naturally petite. I am over 20 weeks pregnant and If a very highly trained midwife feels my stomach then they would probably say I’m not as far a long as I feel. It’s not their fault, they are going by textbooks. Yes the midwife should have booked a scan for earlier but she would have been going with the information your sil provided and by saying she only recently took a test and that she was still having periods then the midwife would have gone by last period dates.

I don’t think your sil should make a complaint.

It's pretty obvious how that mistake can be made.

What would the basis of the complaint be?

I really think you're overreacting massively.

To be fair she missed half of her own pregnancy so it doesn't seem too mad that the midwife was off too!

I didn't know I was pregnant until I felt a kick and the midwife was one day out when she examined me 🤣
(I hadn't had a period for over three years so she had nothing but experience of how the belly felt to go on)

I mean never mind the midwife getting the dates so wrong, what about your sister in law who got to 27 weeks and didn’t even notice herself?!

You're overreacting massively

My female GP felt my stomach when I was 16 weeks pregnant. She couldn't feel anything and was so concerned she rang the maternity clinic and told them I was on my way for a scan. They scanned me and I was ........16 weeks pregnant

Yeah you’re being too harsh. There’s nothing to complain about really, especially as it took the best part of 6 months for your SIL to notice, how can she expect someone who doesn’t know her to accurately predict how far along she is

At 27 weeks the baby would have been felt moving and kicking…. Not sure this is about the midwife tbh

Yes you are being too harsh! In your line of work have you never made a mistake?
And if you have did you think perhaps you need to go and retrain?

The shocking revelation that midwives don’t have X-ray vision and make educated guesses based on the information they have.

Well yes, but there's no "COMPO!! GET HER TOLD!!" room there is there?

This.

Palpation of the abdomen is very obviously not an exact science, which is why... it's not used as one, merely as a quick and dirty check until a scan can be done.

The mw referred her for a scan, the scan confirmed gestation, job done.

Agree.

No complaint needed.

I'm more thinking how the fuck didn't SIL know she was pregnant for this long.

Prediction- basically guess.
Given fact sil didn't know, and she's the one who had the sex and whose body is growing the human...
but yes, let's complain about the person Trying to help, who has not got access to any kit at this appointment.

I measured behind my entire pregnancy with my son, my uterus just tucks backwards abit so it never ever felt right to the midwives and I got sent to growth scans over and over again to be told the baby was actually slightly large. He was born at 38 weeks and 7lbs on the dot. Depends on the type of uterus you have, the strength of the muscles in your core. I can't imagine your sil didn't feel kicks and movements at 27 weeks though, a little odd.

Here to say the same, there's no way at 27 weeks she wasn't feeling any movement. She definitely should've tested sooner.

Midwife was way off as I suspect its rare a woman doesn't recognise baby movement, she probably thought it would've been earlier on on that basis. They measure and feel your tummy based on the dates from the scan, remember, not other way round. I've never heard of a pregnant woman going to the midwife asking her to check and guess how far along she is.

She thought she was pregnant, didn't take a test and then you feel she should complain about a midwife being incorrect based of a feel of a tummy? Absolutely does not warrant a complaint.

Maybe she should of tested when she had a feeling.

You are being too harsh.

Complain about what? It’s yours sisters own body and she didn’t realise. Midwife made a guess, sister said no I can’t a scan sooner, midwife said ok and booked one sooner.