Is it me?

Just got a phone call from my midwife asking me how my hospital appointment went and whether I had an appointment to see her. (the surgery had lost my appointment I made for the 30th Aug).

The appointment sorted she went on to ask me if the hospital had discussed the birth with me.

'Er no'

'Oh this is ridiculous, they should of discussed this with you at 28 weeks' she said

'Well I have to say I did have a bit of a moan at them about the way things are being done, or not being done and he just said that 'everyone does things differently''

'Who did you see?'

'Sorry can't remember his name, it's a different person everytime I go there'

'Did they take your 28 week bloods?'

'No, they gave me a form to take to you to do at our next appointment'

'When your 30 weeks?'

'Yes, he said 28 weeks, 30 weeks it doesn't matter'

'They should of done it at the clinic, this is crazy'

I must admit I looked at my maternity notes and noticed I should have had discussions with my midwife regarding breast feeding at 28 weeks and discussions of the birth and alsorts, I should of filled in a form saying what meds I want at the birth etc etc.

So it actually appears I am not even getting the care a normal run of the mill pregnancy gets.

'Did they take your 24hr urine collection'

'Yes but the doctor said I didn't need to do that anymore unless my U and E's are high'

'So who implemented the 24 hr urine collecton?'

'The consultant I should of seen from the beginning who was going on GOSH's concerns over my renal impairment'

'Oh right well she is on leave until next week hopefully you will see her next time'

In the front of my maternity notes there is a note from the NHS stipulating the quality their maternity services offer, one of which is 'consistency of care'.

I just keep asking myself if it is me? Am I the one who is not doing what they should be doing, I begin to get paranoid that I am becoming a paranoid moaning pain in the backside for the people who do such good work, but it appears the midwife is now getting concerned at what should be happening, which sort of re assures me that a) she is on the case and b)I am not a paranoid hyper condriact.

The midwife seemed very apologetic and I feel re assured that she is on the case at least, none the less, it does rock my otherwise calm steady boat that was just sailing out of the dock of NHS despair into NHS appreciation.

Lets just hope my boat doesn't sink!