LMC’s

One for me would be continuity of care!!!

I had a similar problem. I was going between palmy and wellington dealing with an ultra sound place, my mw, ob in both places and no one seemed to know anything from the last person. I was the one telling everyone what I knew instead of the "professionals" doing it. I was appauled.

To put that into perspective my story is:

found out my bubs had spina bifida at 20 week scan, I told my MW this, she got angry that the ultrasound place hadn't told her immediately. She organised me to see an ob in palmy, that was fine. She came to see us at the ultrasound with the ob but didn't stick around until he showed up which I was very angry about as I would have expected my LMC to be there and know exactly what is going on.

The ob seemed to only tell me positive and down play the negatives of my sons condition. I had to ask questions to get all my options presented to me. He never gave them outright.

Both the ob and my mw guilt tripped me. There is no way that a medical professional should do that ever, their personal opinion is not meant to show. I had to tell my MW what we were told, the ob didn't contact mw and mw didn't contact ob. Thats rediculous

I got sent to wellys. Again, MW didn't wanna come, again very angry.

Back in Palmy, I had to tell my MW yet again what we were told and our decision. I got induced, through the 2 appts I had at hospital again, she didn't bother coming, she didn't come to my induction. Only popped in for about 5 mins.


I believe that the medical professionals need to learn how to talk to one another, the patient should not have to relay information. What if I had told my MW something that was actually wrong? And I also believe that your LMC should attend all appts like the ones with the ob's to k now what is going on with one of her ladies. Fair enough if she has someone in labour but my MW didn't and I was appauled at being left.

with my first pregnancy my MW was excellent she came to ALL my specialists appointments and made sure that I saw her for an appointment the day of any scan (in case something needed explanation).

with my second pregnancy....my MW didnt care at all for me having a specialist. SHe didnt come to any appointments, I had to tell her everything and vice versa. She didnt even want to know what the specialist said, she was anti induction, wanted to let me go 21 days over even though Tom had ended up in Nicu, blah blah blah. Eventually I ditched her prior to my induction. I would love a better system for complaining about an obvious risk to the public (most of my coffee group also had her and wished they had changed...we all feel we had "near misses") Apparently complaining on their evaluation forms means NOTHING!

I found that my LMC didnt really give me any information about my options (about anything). I had done some research myself, so would suggest things or ask questions, so I felt a lot like I was "leading" the discussions. When I was in labour I felt very unsupported until I went to the hospital, and even then she was in the room, but not particulary encouraging. She  made me feel that because I chose to have an epidural that I didnt actually need any moral support.

When I had huge problems b/f after Oli was born, I didnt get any help at all. She basically just told me to "keep trying" even though I didnt have anywhere near enough milk and he wasnt suckling properly. When she did eventually refer me to a lactation consultant I was already in a downward spiral and it was too little too late. Never once did she sit down with me and help me get him latched on, she never mentioned medication either.  I felt a lot like she fobbed me off onto everyone else like the Plunket Family Centre, my GP etc and I felt like she couldnt wait to get rid of me!

 

 

Biggest thing for me, is that the LMC's should allow woman to go to hospital/birth centre earlier in labour, especially for the first time labours. I found it really scary when my contractions started and were around 5 mins apart and painful to be told to take a couple of panadol and have a shower! Neither me or Dh knew what to expect to happen with the labour so when the MW said that 'we'll know when I need to go in', how?!!!

I feel it only leads to more stressful births to try and keep woman home as long as possible!

Sorry if that is rather rambleish

kyliep wrote: If you had a wish list of things when having a baby - what would it be? What would be different from an experience you may have had? If you had the chance to re-design maternity services - what would you do? What are the expectations of the woman on the street when it comes to having a baby in NZ? Feedback is needed - I am trying to initiate some changes in our maternity services - just need to know what people are after!

so could we have some more info about you and how you think you can initiate changes? are you asking in a professional capacity, how will the information you gather be used?

Edited by Bizzy

so will you be providing them with the info you get from here? and who do you consider the "right people" are?

The people are at the Ministry - the info is being collected from Paeds, GP, LMCs & mums...

I spose I am just concerned when I have found out things like the no access to your medical records... lack of communication between GP/LMC.

I agree - there are hundreds of happy women out there - but you dont know what you dont know - ie what are women's expectations - and should they be higher than what they already are?

I second that, I think before I or others give out more information perhaps you would like to share some more of your own background?

And re: expectations, again, every woman is going to want something different. For example, I am a homebirther now but know that it's not every woman's cup of tea - and thus it is something that is very difficult to standardise.



Edited by HippyMama

So far I've had a great experience with things, although the most important bits are still to come.

With regards to the midwives not accessing your medical records, I'm not sure how it matters? On my first appointment, we went through a list of questions to make sure that I had no relevant conditions that would make me high risk. If I'd had any issues, the MW would have sent me to an OB, rather than continued care herself. Midwives are trained in the normal - its not their skill base or their job to deal with the unusual/special cases. I presume a hospital OB could access your medical records if need be.

But equally, I agree with Bizzy and mamma2N. This doesn't really seem like the right way to be gathering such information? At least not without greater disclosure from you.

Also, as an example of how every woman has different expectations, a previous poster said she feels it leads to more stress by staying home as long as possible. For me personally, I think the exact opposite. Home is where I feel least stressed - but then I intend to birth at home too, so maybe I'm a *weird* one anyway