Hospital notes say I have/had a heart murmer???

[FattipuffsandThinnifers]

I had my booking-in appt (12 weeks) yesterday. The midwife was looking through my notes from previous pg/birth of ds1, and said "so are you still on antibiotics for the heart murmer?"

??? I have never been diagnosed with any such thing!

She kind of skipped over it, but I pushed her on it and she said it was written on the delivery notes from ds1 but said "oh it must just be a mistake".

How can this be possible?

I just don't know what to think. Did whoever write my notes just get me mixed up with someone else? Or have I got a heart condition which I don't know about? Was I given antibs at his birth? (Emcs and I was quite out of it so could be possible?)

I have consultant obs appt in a few weeks so will ask again for clarification, but does anyone have any idea what this could mean?

Murmur of course

Heart murmurs are very common and in some ladies more easily heard/detected when pregnant. It is possible you have one but it must have been assumed to be "innocent" i.e. not causing you any problems. I have one which is very audible and therefore it's always mentioned on my notes, but because I used to scuba dive it was thoroughly investigated (ECGs, echocardiogram etc.) and found to be completely "innocent"- just basically a valve that shuts a bit slower than the others so changing the typical sound of a heartbeat through a stethoscope. Medical policy used to be to give antibiotics to those with heart murmurs after all surgery, dental treatment such a fillings etc., but I think this has recently been revised as it wasn't necessary.

Still, it seems very strange that you were never told about this observation!! So I would press for clarification, just for reassurance if nothing else. Good luck.

Thanks jumpingjelly. Perhaps it was picked up when I was having the cs then? Seems strange that this would be picked up but not tell me about it though. Also to be given antibiotics without my knowledge?

I will definitely ask the consultant. Thanks again.

I had a cardiac ultrasound the other day because of a family history thing. In going through my results, the registrar said "Oh yeah, and you've got a slight murmur at the moment, but that's totally normal in pregnancy with all that extra work the body's doing, it'll most likely go afterwards". And we went on to the next thing. Maybe it's just that. You had a pregnancy murmur and it was noted?

The antibiotics thing does sound odd though. Why don't you have a chat with your GP as well?