Reporting midwife problems

Try here for the midwifery council and here for the health and disabilty commissioner.

Edited by lemongirl

Their care leading up to the birth was pretty awful too.  I had only seen my midwife 4 times but had 5 different back-up's so it's not like we actually had a relationship.  Then there was the highlight of one of the back-up midwives telling me I wasn't in labour because I was only 34 weeks and "you don't seem concerned enough" despite contractions being 5 minutes apart and lasting >30 seconds.  I had Kiara 5 hours later.

Thanks Stef - I'll write some stuff down to get it sorted in my mind then send it off to both those places.

I can't imagine Plunket can be any worse than the midwife or Home Care have been.  Tthe midwife rang me yesterday to tell me she'd be here today so I haven't been referred on yet.  My issue is not just with the midwife though.  It's also with Home Care who told me they'd come and visit but then didn't then when I rang them they said they'd recieved the referral (from the NICU) but it wasn't in the right format so they hadn't accepted it and I should contact my midwife.  "I can't she's on leave" "well we're not meant to see you" "but you have a referral and no-one is seeing me because my midwife is on leave" "when is she back?" "I don't know, I can't contact her, she's on leave" etc etc.  Then when they finally visited and found Kiara underweight "oh we need to come every 2 days" YES YOU BLOODY WELL DO but they haven't "because the midwife is coming to see you".  Oh my god are they all idiots?

That's absolutely awful. The Midwifery council would be the people I'd contact. You're meant to get 6 visits from your mw (postnatal) and then they sign you across to plunket. Your "mw" sounds terrible, she should have organised a backup mw to care for you. I really hope you and Kiera start to get better care. Hugs

That's terrible. As far as I'm aware, you are entitled to 6 weeks of home visits, depending on your needs. But either way they should have let you know when you were being discharged and referred to plunket.

I don't understand why your midwife on leave hasn't left you with a backup midwife. That is pretty poor. I would contact the Midwifery Council (theres a link up the page somewhere) and ask them what is going on.

wow that really sucks!

I'm not sure where to start with your complaints but I would recommend the health and disability commissioner

Also, making a complaint can be a tricky, lengthy process (maybe they make it that way so they get less complaints?) but if you really believe in what happened was wrong/not up to standard then keep at it! It's your right to complain and by doing so, even if you don't really see any immediate consequence, you might just make it easier or better for other mums after you

I wish I had made a complaint against this one registrat from my daughters birth- he did so many things wrong and I was in real danger and he got told off in front of us by more than one staff member- was even made to come back and apologise to me but I was so wasted from lack of blood that I don't even remember what he said. At the time I just wanted to get out of there and not think about it but now that I realise how much damage was done and I will probably never be able to have a natural birth I go and WISH I had done something about it then!

Thanks for all your responses.  I'm putting something together but got to sound sensible rather than emotive which is what it is coming out as at the moment.  And I've also got to remember the details of the last 2 pregnancies (that went wrong) because basically ALL the maternity services I've recieved have been poor.

Firsttimemum88 - my midwife's initials were GS.  Is this who you had.? If so then it makes it even more important to me to flag the problems I've had with the services involved.

wow!! sounds like you have had terrible care The saffm, i would defintaly complain with care like that , thats not on, i have only good things to say about my amazing midwife , i guess like any profesion there are good and bad workers .

 

as my midwife is also my bestfriend i also know what goes on behind the scenes , Midwives in this country are extremly overworked , there is a real shortage . my midwife has 2 children and sometimes works up to 70-80 hrs a week to keep up with demand . she had absolutly no breaks over christmas and new year and hasnt had more than a week off in over 2 years . she is constantly getting txts and calls from her clients and to be honest some of the stuff people ask is just time wasting and ridiculous , sure your midwife needs to be there for you if you have concerns and needs to see you regulary for check ups etc but they also have alot of clients and some people need to realise they are not there midwives only client and they cant be there for every single moment of there pregnancy. im certinly not pin-pointing anyone on this forrum when i say that , its just what i see with my friends clients .  There are some really bad midwives out there, i'll be the first to admit that, but i also think we need to praise the amazing work some of them do , i know my mate does not get enough credit !!!!!