"Disappointing Community Maternity care"

Following a fairly traumatic first birth with another health board, with excellent care however, I was pregnant with my second child with NHS Lanarkshire. Unfortunately, from the get go, I had inconsistent Community Midwives (4 ante-natal and 2 postnatal staff members). Larkhall Health Clinic were clearly short staffed and struggling, however I was aware of staff being moved to elsewhere. Low staffing no doubt impacted the often late running clinics and poor response to phone-calls/return answer phone messages, having a knock-on effect on patient wellbeing due to poor continuity of staff.

One particular Community Midwife was late on a couple of occasions with little apology and had even forgotten to book one of my appointments into their diary/Badger app. This resulted in 70+ minutes in the waiting room delaying another pregnant lady and taking me away for longer from my own work. The Badger app was regularly not fully updated throughout my pregnancy, in comparison to my detailed paper notes with my previous health board.

This same Midwife in routine appointments had poor attitude and seemed to lack empathy when discussing symptoms eg heartburn/reflux, thrush, UTI. This was extremely unhelpful when you're attending alone and are already feeling emotional/vulnerable whilst pregnant, but in addition that these symptoms are impacting your day-to-day life and work. Symptoms were either dismissed or the Midwife clearly didn’t wish to discuss, merely offering brief advice that I should privately purchase medicines at the pharmacy. This was disappointing as by huge contrast, I always received a high level of care from my GP Practice same day remotely over the phone, always feeling as if it wasn’t too much trouble to prescribe medications or offer advice.

Relatively late into my pregnancy I collected a prescription, however with the surprising addition of Aspirin which had not been discussed in my appointments. Using my own healthcare knowledge, I researched the indication for Aspirin in pregnancy and was aware I was not high risk and at 20+ weeks unsure why so late on to include. It took a number of phone calls and answerphone messages to contact the various Community Midwives, with an explanation from Hamilton that there was a new system and there had been other incidents of incorrectly recommending medicines. Rather worrying. My Aspirin had been incorrectly prescribed, which I’m sure other pregnant ladies would have started taking no questions asked as you trust the staff responsible for you. I returned the Aspirin to the Pharmacy, however it had to be unfortunately destroyed, such a waste.

I was referred for several growth scans during my pregnancy. For the first growth scan referral, I heard from Wishaw scan department within hours and scanned same afternoon. Following a second growth scan referral, I changed plans with my toddler for the day and waited in with my phone nearby as recommended, I however never heard back. This resulted in myself contacting various numbers the following day and leaving answerphone messages, only to be informed the referral had been reviewed and a scan would no longer be indicated. This is extremely poor communication, either UHW or Community Midwives or both. However, had I have been a nervous pregnant person, this 36-hour wait would have been horrendous worrying about your unborn baby and if all is well. My experience at UHW Ultrasound department during my several scans was always very positive, staff members always thorough with detailed explanations and brilliant communication.

During my 35-week appointment I was informed baby was measuring small again and likely in a breech presentation with the various interventions discussed, followed by a scan referral. Clinically I felt the right decisions were being made, however it was the poor communication, lack of empathy and dismissive nature regarding my concerns. This was the second time leaving an appointment in tears as I hadn’t felt listened to or supported fully, returning to work emotional and unable to focus. This in hindsight was the start of my poor mental health journey with a newborn, unsurprisingly.

At 39 weeks I attended a routine Community appointment elsewhere with one of the managers, after being offered alternative care further away due to my concerns. This was following a telephone call to this same manager, who was initially unaware of my above concerns, particularly alarming that the medication error hadn’t been highlighted to them. I happily accepted this alternative care and found the appointment beneficial.

I had a very positive experience giving birth at UHW and cannot be more grateful for the amazing care I received by all the lovely staff on Labour ward. I still feel very appreciative that I was able to use one of the birthing pools and that an extremely experienced kind Midwife was able to support me through.

I was then back out into the community, returning to suboptimal care with multiple staff members and minimal appointments due to in part being deemed an experienced Mum. This was the reason also given for being initially unable to attend the NHS ante-natal class, I found this decision to be unfair so thankfully successfully challenged this. I was particularly interested in attending as this was a different NHS board/hospital and I was aware of changes in induction protocols. Having had minimal appointments within the Health Visiting service was actually highlighted to me when attending one of the Breastfeeding Support Groups in Lanark with my one month old, that they would have expected us to have had more follow-up visits, even by support staff. This led me to request my baby was weighed at the end of the session if possible, leaving the group in tears with a feeling of complete disappointment and then contacting Larkhall. As a result, I have actively avoided Larkhall and have attended the Strathaven Breastfeeding Support Group, where the staff have been hugely welcoming and supportive.