Hi,
I am now 12 weeks a bit, and have just received a letter referring me to the MNPI team.
I didn't really know what to think about this when my midwife said she would refer me, but I'm reading their page now online and it seems to be mainly a service for women who've had bad previous experiences or are scared of childbirth? I'm a bit ?? if this is the right place for me to be. She said they'd give me a tour of the hospital so I didn't feel like I was going in blindly but I don't see that on their webpage.
I'm not actually scared of the childbirth or pregnancy, I've never had a baby before, I don't feel overly anxious or like I'm not coping. I think I'll be fine with the baby, my mental health's okay, I'm just shit scared of needles.
When I had my midwife appointment the first thing I said to her was she had take the blood now or I'm not going to be able to talk to her. Cause I wouldn't have been able to talk to her! I was fine, didn't cry or faint or anything, I just needed it out the way and done to certain instructions, then I was fine and had the appointment as normal.
She's prewarned me of all the appointments that will involve a blood taking, and has told me when they take blood at my scan they'll do the scan first and then take the blood. The scans on Monday and I'm scared of that. I'm not going to be able to concentrate at all on the scan with that hanging over me at the end of the appointment, it's going to be miserable when I want it to be nice.
But I'm not daft, I'm not going to opt out of any testing just because I'm scared, I need to know everything is okay. So it just has to happen. It's the same way I don't like hospitals, but no one does. It's the safest place to have the baby so I'll just have to stomach it.
I've already had doctors and nurses try the fluffy crap to get me not to fear vaccine injections and it doesn't work. And again, I can have vaccines, I just can't look at the needle and I need it done fast as possible. None of this one in each arm, get it out the way.
Has anyone had a referral to MNPI for fear of needles? What does it involve and is it actually helpful? I don't want to waste peoples time.
(I also have an autism diagnosis on my badger notes which the NHS took off me 4 year ago, I'm worried that's maybe nudged her to refer me? I also have a history of depression but I've been off the medication for about two years and had no issues since. I don't know what to think.)