LizzieS

Wodey, if you are still there and haven't given up on the forum, the kind of care you are describing is really only guaranteed by independent midwives.

Yes, the Brierly Midwives are great but their criteria is homebirths and women with serious mental health issues. All the group practices with Kings are going to have waiting lists and be understaffed, from what I can gather. If they have all this great feedback from the past women, maybe you just need to cut tham some slack and it will get better for you all. They are dealing with more than one woman at a time!! It's a relationship in the end, so if you are nice with them.....

"Inconsistency bordering on flakiness..." posted by MichelleT

Does it ever occur to you that the Oakwood midwives read these posts? Just because they have to keep a professional silence on this forum doesn't mean that I have to. One of my great friends happens to be one of those "flakey" Oakwood midwives. And I happen to know that it pains them just as much as it obviously does you, to have to reduce their home visits service. You are right, they have been praised for their level of care for the past 10 years in E.Dulwich and many women have accessed their services. The that they are suddenly working with 4 midwives for a workload of 6 is through no fault of their own. A reduction of a third of their workforce is not reflected by a reduction in their number of clients. If you have to complain about anything, try the general state of midiwfery services which is working below numbers across the country, not just in London. Quite a political hot potato. It's also a postcode lottery. There are a lot of women booked under Kings for whom hospital-based care is the norm. As for having to go the surgery for your appointments, what is wrong with that? When I had my babies 20 or so years ago all antenatal care was centralised at the hospital. We sat in a long corridor (in a hospital gown please) waiting to be weighed, have our pre-prepared urine sample tested, and our blood pressure checked by 3 different people. Then we had a quick 5 minute "consultation" with a white-coated doctor who passed a cursory glance across our abdomen before scrawling one sentence across something resembling a library card. We certainly did not have 24 hour access to any kind of midwifery service for advice or counselling. But perhaps it's a generational thing. In these days of having our groceries, clothes and many other consumable goods delivered to our home, very often within an allotted time window, perhaps we are losing the use of our legs. I thought exercise was supposed to be good for the pregnant woman.