"Lack of continuity with community midwives"

Over the first 10 days postpartum we saw 4 different midwives (unsure if this was due to COVID or some other reason).

The midwife who visited us on day 3 was completely unhelpful - was only interested in completing the notes, overwhelmed us with information & then started talking about blind safety for when she started crawling! The same midwife came back to do a repeat heel prick test on day 8 & showed no compassion at all - squeezed so much blood out of my baby that she was howling. I started to cry & her comment was “bit emotional are we?”

The other midwives were fantastic, answered all our questions & were so compassionate (especially the day 10 midwife).

It would have been so much better if we’d have more continuity of care with our community midwife visits (& that my husband was allowed at the hospital & midwife appointments - he was only allowed at our two scans and was only allowed in for our emergency section almost at the end - having to do the whole thing alone was HORRIBLE).

It’s ridiculous that during the time when you’re allowed to queue in Tesco with 100’s of people he was only allowed to stay with the baby & me for 2 hours post surgery & a 1 hour visiting slot in hospital (thankfully I was only in for 2 nights but if it had been any longer there would have been days he wouldn’t have seen our baby at all!).

We have said this is our only baby & I feel sad there was so much of the “normal” pregnancy & birth experience he missed out on & that I had to go through alone.