"Antenatal care"

I want to share my story on antenatal care at North Middlesex Hospital (NMH). Unfortunately, I had two late miscarriages there. My experience was mixed; I think NMH has some very good consultants that provide high standard of care and advice. But it is very difficult to get to see a consultant and I felt I was left to deal with midwives who were careless and clueless.

I still don't understand, why you can not have your scan and midwives appointment on the same date to save you going there twice for example?

You can not go to day unit until 20 weeks and if you have complications you have to go to A&E. I know that some hospitals in London accept patients to day clinics from as early as 14 weeks. I had dreadful experience where midwives day unit wouldn’t accept me as I was 19.5 weeks, even thought my consultant made me an appointment there. The midwife would insist on sending me to A&E and it took 15 min of what I felt was an embarrassing argument to persuade her to call the consultant and confirm that I was in the right place indeed.

I felt that probably 95% of my appointments were at least 30 min late and in one case I had to wait for 2 1/2 hours to be seen. So I would naturally ask the question, why do they give you time slot in the first place? It is different for ultrasound appointments, where the longest I ever waited was 20 min.

I felt that all my appointments with midwives were a waste of my time, they fill in a form, which I think I can easily do myself. I would only recommend the consultant lead care in NMH.