I hadn’t had a child for more than 20 years. So, I had expectations, as i had had a child before. But what I didn’t expect was for things to be so radically different in a negative way. In 1989 when I last had a baby – there was a small piece of card – called a co-operation card, i saw the midwife almost every week, and especially so in last trimester, and she weighed me, every time i saw her. I had a 1-1 relationship with my midwife. She visited me at home, came in for a cup of tea, every week in the third trimester, there was 1-1 personal care. There was continuity of care, with one midwife. I expected things to be the same with my last baby. But I was so very wrong. Midwifery care had not improved in those 2 decades, they had become considerably worse.
Fast forward 20 years – midwives now have an encyclopaedia to complete (handheld maternity notes). I have never seen such a big book. I was full of optimism, and thought (as you would) that midwifery care must be even better. As my pregnancy progressed, I realised that I couldn’t have been more wrong, this big hand held book, gave me a false sense of security. Staff shortages meant I barely saw the same midwife twice. There was no continuity of care. I was meant to be monitored for pre eclampsia, but this never happened. I think i was weighed once. Urine was barely checked (before they checked urine every week)… continuity between consultant at the hospital and midwife was non-existent. Each service passed you back to the other, neither taking responsibility, and both parties assuming that ‘the other’ would take action. Leaving me, the mother absolutely confused.
The truth is – that the midwife(s) spent so much time completing the big book – i might not have been there – i felt like it wasa form filling exercise. Not just sometimes, but every time. Each visit, midwifes spent their time with their head buried in the book, completing paperwork, and barely glanced up to look at me. There was no face to face care, just completing forms. There was so much focus on monitoring, and unfortunately – what gets monitored is what gets done. I strongly believe that this is what is so seriously wrong with Midwifery care today. They are short staffed and overworked with far too much paperwork to complete. My midwife(s) were all filling in the forms but nobody was engaging brain and doing any ACTION… nobody took action, or responsibility. Paperwork had become more important than patient care.
I know a lot of services are like this today. From a mother – who experienced midwifery services 20 years apart who has witnessed the change and the drop in standards, I really do think that this is costing lives, and this is why so many mistakes are being made. And from a Government perspective as the biggest proportion of winning negligence claims against the NHS is birth injury cases, it really is in the Governments interests to make changes. When what gets monitored is what gets done…. when monitoring is completing pieces of paper not patient care — lives are placed at risk. The paperwork might look great, but when the patient feels invisible, something is clearly very very wrong.
How much does it cost for Clinical Negligence Claims? Surely it has to be better to get it right first time, every time. Care is being lost, by staff having to complete lengthy pieces of paper. I might as well have sent my maternity notes in the post, and had my midwife fill them in, and then post them back to me. Because I really did feel invisible. I felt this way, ALL THROUGH my pregnancy. Important things were missed. They shouldn’t have been. The outcome for me was serious. Not just that my daughter died, but additionally what happened during the birth left me feeling so traumatised, I have lost 3 years of my life to shock.
I hope that in the future things can change.
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