Bad Midwifes

[Kamaikia]

Alot of people have got a story about a bad or frustrationg midwife and i'd like to hear them.
I rang the hospital at 11pm when my waters broke only to be told to see what happens, that i'd never had a baby so i was just confused. I ended up going to hospital about 8 hours later. I got an older midwife who hooked me up to the machine to moniter my contractions and the babies heartbeat but the strap kept slipping and it wasn't reading properly. I told her that my waters had broken - she said, and these are her words "no I don't think they have i think you have lost control of her bladder"- I think i would know the difference. At 11am she told me that seeing as though i was still on my feet I should go home. As she hadn't done a internal in all this time my sister who was there put her foot down and told her to do one before we go anywhere. She did it then just walked out of the room. Turns out my waters had broken and i was about 5cm dilated.
I wasn't going anywhere. it wasn't long after that i asked for some pethedine and was told by her to wait half and hour. Exactly half and hour later i asked for it only to be told no it was too late. (this was approx 4 hours before my son was born) so i went through without any pain releif but the gas. (which i was not happy about)
Luckily her shift ended before my son came and i had an amazing women deliver my boy but i couldn't help feeling really angry toward the other midwife for treating me like an idiot.
She made what i felt was a great experience into a real drama because of her "I am the midwife so I know everything" attitude

[madvoice]

When I had my first Glucose Tolerance Test 28wk blood test the midwife rang my husband and told him that there was nothing to worry about. I just needed to take some tablets?? That got my heckles up. I rang back and she told me that I'd FAILED my first test and that my iron levels were really low and I needed to do something about it NOW! No we're a little concerned we want you to do it NOW. I got really angry. I said why couldn't you have told my husband the truth. She said privacy issues. I replied "why did you tell him everything was ok when it wasn't". She got really catty with me and I told her that I wasn't going to put up with it and hung up on her. I made sure that the rest of my midwife apointments WEREN'T with this woman.

Also after Raleigh was born I had very sore/cracked nipples. I was using a nipple sheild and I got YELLED at for using it because it was BAD for my baby. I told her that it was MY choice and to get lost (had this happen with two midwives). They made me sign an indemnity form in order to use a nipple sheild AND a dummy. I couldn't wait to get out of there fast enough. They also got up me for getting up and moving around so soon after my c-section. I got very angry with all of them and told them that it was MY choice to move around and I'm not going to just sit her on meds.

I also had to tell one midwife who was about to give me pethadine for the pain after my c-section to go away because pethadine does absolutely NOTHING for me. Well it does make me tired but the pain doesn't go away. I found 3/4 of the midwives at Darwin Private Hospital to be really horrible. If there is a next time I'm going to be just as difficult to live with LOL

[mummycloud]

For some reason the midwives at public hospitals around here don't believe anyone is in labor till the head comes out.
Thats' happened twice to me. I get told I'm not in labor and then end up screaming that the baby is crowning beofre they finally believe me

I guess that because they have so many women coming in with false labor, they assume that every time is false unless the baby comes out

[aardvark]

The midwife who looked after me when I was in labour with #1 should have her registration revoked.

I'd been in labour for 3 hours, and I asked how much longer I was likely to be, and she tol me at least another 5 hours. On the basis of how much pain I was in, I determined I could not endure 5 more hours of that, and asked for Pethidine.

It took at least another 30 minutes before the pethidine was given.

My daughter was born approximately 20 minutes after the Pethidine injection, and needed to be resuscitated. Thank god my OB made it to the hospital in time.

The reality was that she had given an opinion as to how long I was going to be based on NOTHING other than it was my first baby, and that it should take about 12 hours. If she'd had a look to see what was going on, (which she didn't), and told me I was in transition, and it would not be much longer, I would have coped fine, and she would have known I was too far along to have the drug in any case.

[Briannabear]

The midwives who looked after me took 28 hours of labour in hospital, and 5 or so internal examinations to work out that my baby was in breech position!

[BJelly]

I did meet some lovely midwives, but they were few. As my husband said about the ones he met - if they weren't weird, they were mean.

I had a third degree tear and I was told to get up and get my own cold pack by one midwife, and was refused by another. I also had to organise my own discharge medications - I had to be on antibiotics for 5 days and I left on day 3 - I was just about to leave, when I realised I hadn't been given anything for the next 2 days.

I also had to walk to the car park after picking up the discharge medications. No one in the ward offered me a wheelchair, and I didn't think to ask for one, so I shuffled past the nurse in charge of the ward and the doctor. So by the time I got to our car, my insides felt like they were falling out!!

I also got told by the paediatrician on the day of discharge that there was a mix up with my 20 week ultrasound, and when I asked the head nurse to find out what had gone wrong - I was told to fill out a form and she would get back to me in a week!! She also patronisingly said what was the problem - me and baby were fine. I said that wasn't the issue - the issue was that without the correct ultrasound, the obstetrician couldn't have known if my placenta was in the right place - and the fact that baby and me were fine, was more a case of good luck than good medical care.

Also just before we left the ward my husband had brought up the baby capsule and bub didn't look quite right in it. We asked a midwife if she thought bub was positioned correctly - and she said something like - I shouldn't have to tell you, you should already know how to use it! And more or less tsked tsked us for being bad parents because we hadn't used baby capsule before.

ARRGH! I can't tell you how glad I was to leave that place!!

[dee dee]

I met a couple of doozies at my hospital!! My dd was overdue so my ob sent me to the hospital to be hooked up to the monitor just as a precaution to check that everything was ok. The midwife hardly spoke and just made disapproving noises. When I asked her what was wrong, she demanded to know how much I had eaten that day. When I answered her she shot back with "well thats not enough is it?" She left to get me a glass of water and then hooked me up for another half an hour. After an eternity she returned and unhooked me and despite asking if everything was ok she wasn't very forthcoming with the information. I will never forget the words she said to me as I was leaving- "you wouldn't starve your baby when it is out, so why are you doing it now!"

Needless to say, by the time I got home I was in tears. I rang my ob who was disgusted about what had happened, and he rang the hospital immediately. He rang me back shortly afterwards, saying that all was well with the bub and there was nothing to worry about.

To continue with my saga.......
I was due for an induction on a Wednesday night, so hubby and I decided to go out for dinner on Tuesday night. Our 'last supper" so to speak. When we got home we had a message from the hospital asking where we were as they were waiting for us Well I rang the hospital and told them I wasn't due in until Wednesday and they proceeded to tell me that I was mistaken and to come on in. I mean I have heard of being forgetful in pregnancy but this was something else!!!! Surely I couldn't forget something as important as the date that my first child was due to be born on.
I rang my ob who assured me that I was booked in for Wednesday night, and that he would sort out the drama for me. The midwife then tried to tell the ob that he too had the incorrect date. Well to cut a long story short my ob seems to think that they had overbooked and the midwives were then asked to try an dconvince us that we both had the wrong day.

Like madvoice I too had to sign an indemnity form, but mine was to alow me to give my 'starving' daughter a bottle of formula (as we had alot of trouble breast feeding). I felt so belittled having to sign this form before being allowed to feed my daughter. The midwives mad me feel like I was the worst mother in the world.

But don't get me wrong there were also some life savers, I remember one in particular giving me a huge cuddle when the three day blues hit. She showed me how to express my milk so that dd could get some precious breastmilk but she also offered me formula without making me feel guilty.

Sorry for the ramble, dee dee

[aardvark]

I forgot about the other bad one I encountered when in hospital after having #1.

She was about 24 hours old, and I needed some help with feeding, as you do.....

So I rang the bell for the midwife, and she came down, and when asked about some assistance with feeding, she told me "It's not my place to tell you how to feed your baby".

Probably contributed to me developing mastitis not long after going home.

[pregasaurus]

Man, I hate midwives. When in labour with no.1, I went in with 5 minutely contractions having been in labour already for 19 hours, only to be told the last 19 hours weren't 'real' labour, and that I was only 3 cms and they would count labour beginning from now (oh, ok, so when I was pacing up and down the hall all night I was just pretending then?). I asked if I could please have some Panadol, I didn't want anything stronger. I was told they wouldn't give me panadol, only pethidine. I said 'I don't want any pethidine', she came back with a needle and I said 'I don't want any pethidine', she rolled me over and pulled my dress up, I said 'I don't want any pethidine' and she stabbed me in the leg with the needle and gave me the shot!

After 4 hours of being completely out of it, I came out of the drug haze the pain was unbearable. I asked for a spinal block, which they agreed to. I checked again that I was getting a SPINAL BLOCK and that I WOULD be able to move around and have a shower etc, 'yes, yes, you're getting a spinal block'. As soon as the anaesthetist left she insisted on breaking my waters. After, I asked if I could please get up and have a shower and she turned around and sneered at me 'you're not going anywhere, you've just had an epidural put in' and walked out of the room! My husband had to go hunting through the cupboards to find a towel to soak up the mess, as she hadn't even given me a pad after breaking them, so I was sitting in a massive pool of meconium stained water, unable to move or feel my lower body.

My daughter was posterior and they left me flat on my back (the WORST thing you can do for a posterior woman) for 7 hours.

I was left so traumatised and upset after my first birth I refused to go back to that place to ever have another baby ever again. I wouldn't even send my dog there to have puppies.

[pinkandblue]

Hi

I went through the midwives clinic when I was pregnant and also had a different set of midwives to deliver my baby. I just want to say that every midwife I saw was fantastic! I didnt have a problem with any of them.

Natalie