Texting midwife

Maybe ask her about it. I messaged mine and she will reply when she is next working

I do and she has been very lovely. She always replies

@Eleanor Yh I’ll ask when I see her in person as it’s just the worst feeling like I’m being blanked

I used to txt mine all the time, she used to tell me if I had any concerns at any time to text her

@Swai-Anne seems like mines the only one who isn’t replying lol idk why it’s strange

I do text her and she does reply but not very helpful - last time I ended up being referred to GP, they then referred me to NHS 24 who then referred me to the maternity hospital for then to finally someone telling me that I should be fine (drank BPA invested water) - no check ups offered or anything. I feel so left alone on my pregnancy when it comes to doctors and maternity specialists. Even my friends and family to be honest. I just feel like I annoy them with my questions. But, tell me if I’m wrong, does not everyone have all sorts of questions and worries in their first pregnancy? How am I supposed to know what’s normal and not? I really wish there was some sort of hotline we could all message. Even if it takes a while to get an answer - better than no answer at all and just kinda winging it through it hoping all will be fine

Mine asks that I call instead of text. So maybe it’s the same with yours. There’s always someone on call though so I can always speak to someone when I call

I WhatsApp her as she asked me to contact her there, she switches it off on the days she doesn’t work, I only message her if I am really worried or if it’s about appointments 🙂 I think the longest she’s taken to reply is 4 days as she was on holiday

@Anna you’re not wrong at all! That’s how I feel and this is my first pregnancy. My sister who has kids does help me but she doesn’t have all the answers as she has had a different experience to me, so it’s just horrid like feeling alone is the worst im gonna start calling mine seeing as texting isn’t working see if that helps it’s just ridiculous

Ours doesn’t offer texting or calling (or seeing the same midwife 😅) they just tell everyone to call a maternity advice line/ hotline which is manned by midwives in the hospital and is available 24/7

@Megan Yh I only text when worried but I’ll try WhatsApp x

@Catherine well that’s basically what I’ve had to do lol

Didn’t even know they gave out their contact details, I don’t have any direct contact details for mine!

Yeah I don't think they tend to give out thier details now because they move about so much you don't often get the same one throughout (in my area anyway) usually you have to call the main triage line.

I had my midwives number but she never replied...I only saw my actual midwife for less than half of my appointments too. She just always told me to call triage if I had a problem

Any concerns you should be calling your maternity triage. Texting midwives is just for no urgent concerns or appt time/date changes.

@Lottie definitely, I only messaged when my 20 week scan came back with a chance of heart defects and I was trying to find out when our emergency scan with fetal medicine was going to be (thankfully had another scan and all fine) and when my GD appointment is now showing as cancelled on my badger app I was asking her what was going on with that 😅

I always saw the same midwife but she only worked 1/2 days a week so her phone was never on, and when it was she was so busy so never got a response 😂 best just to ring triage for any concerns.

I'm currently blanking mine 😂, I messaged when I had fainted at the beginning of pregnancy and she didn't reply so spoke to EPU instead. We then had our 12 week scan cancelled so messaged about that and she didn't reply. I didn't go to our 18 week appointment as there was no need so she's texted twice since and I've just not replied due to lots of stuff going on

@Charlie wow I can imagine . Even the appointments attended are always short so I can imagine my midwife ghosting me😩😩😩I would have changed midwife fast.

@Mercy yeah I just can't be arsed 😂 this is my second pregnancy so really don't mind not seeing her tbh and we're home birthing so happy to have the bare minimum contact but yeah it's a bit mad isn't it!

@Robyn maybe that’s what’s happened then x

@Lottie I always have been contacting the maternity ward I was asking bc people were telling me to contact my midwife

@Charlie it’s crazy. I think I need to appreciate my midwife more😂😂she has been an angel. Being a first time mum I don’t know what I would have done

@Ayesha that’s what I been doing lol thank you ☺️

@Charlie well if she wasn’t replying to you then, I don’t see why you should reply to her 🤣

Nope, never. I never had a number for my midwife, only the main midwifery centre number. I would never text her, she might not be at work when you do so why should she reply.

I never had a designated MW nor saw the same one more than once. Was just a number to call in the hospital unit. I never needed to use it though so don’t know if it was actually of any help or not.

I dont bother contacting mine anymore, I think it depends area to area tbh

Mine never responded when I messaged the odd time... so I gave up and would call triage instead x

@Kee I have a designated one she called me to tell me lol but Yh strange

As a community midwife I will say this, If it’s something that needs a reply you shouldn’t be texting your midwife. It’s so easy to miss messages or forget to reply if in a busy clinic and our phones are not always switched on. I came back off annual leave one week to 8 voicemails, 16 messages and 42 emails and went straight back into a clinic that started at 9, finished at 5.30 and a home visit after. No chance I replied to all of them. I dealt with the ones from social workers and ones that I could reply between patients but can guarentee I missed a few Anything your community midwife needs updating about will be flagged by the relevant hospital department or consultant through internal communications. Anything you have that’s urgent should go through the triage unit at the hospital

@Ceri-Ann how do you know how urgent some things really are though? For me, drinking BPA invested water, basically pure chemical, sounded pretty urgent and scared the hell out of me. Called triage, who said to speak to midwife, called no answer so messaged, she called to say to speak to GP, then they said NHS24 and they then referred to the maternity hospital. Nobody with an actual answer, just: you should be fine. Until today I don’t know if this will harm my baby / how urgent my matter really was. Just makes you feel awful and so incredibly alone.

@Anna had you asked me about that I’d have told you to either go to A&E or call 111 as I would have no clue. Midwives are trained to deal with normality in pregnancy. Anything out side of that we refer onto specialist teams Chances are medical professionals of the highest standing wouldn’t be able to answer that question as it’s probably not happened in their careers! Community midwives will only have phones on during shifts. I only work 4 days a week many colleagues only work 3 and we have annual leave and sickness like any other person so should not be relied on if you need an answer for anything. If it needs an answer i would deem that as urgent

I was never given a number for mine, just the main office number which would be picked up by anyone if at all. My mum works for the NHS as a health visitor and where she works, they have been told not to text people as a rule. Inconvenient and unhelpful when that's how a lot of people choose to communicate, but it is also a very time consuming and often misinterpreted way of sharing information.

@Ceri-Ann thanks it’s my first time pregnant so I am not to know a lot of things and also I am an overthinker however she did respond to me in the end - I only text her once and I did go to triage in the end. Thank you

@Ceri-Ann that is good to know - the system in Germany is so different so thank you for highlighting how it works here. I am a bit worried about the “if it didn’t happen in their careers they don’t know an out it” part for specialist doctors though not gonna lie. I would expect at least the doctors in A&E to go and find it out - not refer you to someone else and basically after all just be told well wait and see. But that’s obv got nothing to do with midwives now. Thanks again- that really helped :)

@AnnaAgain A&E doctors are specialists in emergency care here that is basically ‘keep them breathing, keep their heart pumping, stop them from bleeding to death, hand them to a specialist to fix fully’ each speciality has its limitations and a sign of a good dr is they know their limitations and don’t try to pretend otherwise!

@Ceri-Ann okay, makes sense again. Now, who would refer me to the specialist? If my GP referred me to A&E and they to the midwife unit - so basically one full circle. Who would I contact next? For my water case it’s too late now but would be good to know for the future 🙈

@Anna I have absolutely no idea. This is what I would’ve expected A&E to know as they are the ones who deal with the immediate poisons risks

@Ceri-Ann okay. 🙈 I feel like because I am pregnant no one really knew how to take responsibility for it. Because A&E did say that if it was just me, they wouldn’t be worried at all and are sure a one off doesn’t do harm but they didn’t know what about baby which is why they referred me to the midwife unit. But then they obv don’t know how that affects me in the first place so how would they know about baby. Very unfortunate event tbh. Anyway, thanks for all your answers! 🤗