Frustrated by "Shared Care" - too late to switch?

[lastboxoftampons]

When I was given the choice at my booking in, I said I'd like to do shared care - ie seeing the midwife at my GP's office. I naively thought it'd be easier, and that I'd get to see the same midwife throughout. Now at 34 weeks, I've had 3 midwives appointments, all with different mw, the last of which didn't know what the hell she was talking about in terms of forms, tests, etc. It has been pretty routine that the mw says okay, we'll see you in 4 weeks, I go down to reception to make an appointment and they tell me they can't see me for about 6 weeks - plus they're never at convenient times, so I have to go to work and then come all the way back home, the mw is always running late and it ends up taking about 4 hours for me to get home, wait for mw, have my appointment and then get back to work. My next appointment is June 25 at 35+6 and I have several questions regarding the position my baby is in, how long they'd let me go past my due date, etc. - for my last appointment I saw the GP because I couldn't get in to see the mw and she wasn't able to definitively answer any of my questions. I called the surgery to see if there was any hope of a cancellation in the next two weeks so I could see the mw earlier - they tell me that the next available appointment is 20 July!!!! That's 4 days before my due date!

Needless to say, even though my pregnancy has been fortunately relatively straightforward, I'm seriously regretting the decision I made. And according to the paperwork I have, I'm meant to see the mw fortnightly from 36 weeks. Is it too late to switch to the mw unit at the hospital? Is it any better? I know that care varies wildly according to location, but any advice is much appreciated.

why on earth do you think the hospital will be better? IME it is worse Far far worse.

The last time I had to have an antenatal appointment at our hospital I had to wait an hour and a half. By the time I was seen I was so hungry I was on the verge of fainting and my blood pressure was so low the MW thought I was dead Not quite but she did take it several times to check.

I have never been seen on time at the hospital and at ours there is the added hassle of parking.

Thanks Soupdragon - I guess I thought it might be better because the mw is only at the GP on Mondays and every other Thursday but the clinic at Kings hospital has appointments every day. I know they have lots of people to see - it's not really the wait I have as much of an issue with, it's just even getting an appointment!

I hope I don't sound like a spoiled brat - but I just feel really left on my own (first baby, as I'm sure you can tell! ).

It's not too late! I changed hospitals at week 39 because, wait for it, the delivery suite didn't have air conditioning! It was heat wave, and just spoke to M/W and she arranged it.

That sounds crap that you can't get an appointment in line with the handout, which is probably based on the Nice guidelines. Might be worth calling the hospital - try the antenatal service manager or whatever they are called and see if you can at least arrange 1 appointment at the hospital to discuss your questions. By this stage with the lack of continuity of care you've had it probably doesn't matter that you'll see yet another midwife, as that might be the case at your surgery anyway. If you're having to wait for appointments then it will be less of a shock if that's also the case at the hospital - having said that I've never waited longer than 15 minutes for the few hospital appointments I've had.

If you get no joy, consider contacting your local PALS (can't remember exactly what it stands for but they're basically the front line for complaints to your trust - the good thing about them IME is that they actively try to resolve your problem, rather than just taking the information and then it disappearing into the ether, so they may be able to help you get a more convenient appointment). I'm not sure how they work in relation to shared care as opposed to hospital care, but at the end of the day if you're going to deliver in a hospital then they're kind of responsible for you all the way through aren't they?

Sorry that's quite long!

oh no the hospital will be worse, and it would probably take up until your due date to ge you transfered onto their system.

i'm under 'shared care' which is further complicated by the fact my midwife is in a different health area to the hospital i'm having this dc in. i had dd in the same hospital but as we moved house between her and this babu i now fall into another health area.

to cut a long story short..my 'booking in appointment' at the hospital involved a 2 hour wait for the scan, then another hour wait to see the midwife to take blood, then another 2 hour to see the consultant who did precisely nothing at all except read the notes my community mw at my gp surgery had already filled in.