Birth debrief

I had one with my firstborn 3 years ago during covid restrictions. It was over the phone. I didn’t find it overly helpful to be honest. She basically just read my birth notes to me, there was no support offered, I felt like my questions were dismissed / not answered properly. I hope that yours if you decide to go is more helpful for you. I think you need to consider what you want from it and go from there? X

@Aimee hey, thanks for your reply. I don’t even know what I want from it tbh. My midwife just said to me that she thought it would help me understand why things happened and turned out the way they did Half of my thinks it was 10 weeks ago now, I have my little family and I’m happy. Is it worth me getting upset over it all again. Then the other half of me wants to ask questions of where did it actually go wrong and is it likely to happen again. Mine is however face to face xx

@Kira I’m sorry that you had a tough time, its so hard when things don’t go anything like what you expected. It sounds like you’ve recovered well from it though! It might be helpful for you to have the opportunity to ask questions if you’re planning to have another in the future and want to understand better what happened and if it is likely to happen again / how to avoid it happening again? I don’t think there’s a ‘right’ answer, just do what feels right for you. From my understanding you can request your birth notes from the hospital at any point (although some trusts charge for them).

@Aimee thank you xxx

My health visitor referred me for mine. But it's not till October. I wanted to know what happened soon after I gave birth as I got an infection during labour - they had sent me home when my waters broke because I wasn't dilated. Waiting till October won't change anything and both me and my LB are healthy now. I think it will just help me understand what to watch out for if I have another baby xx

I had mine over the phone yesterday and although I found parts of it upsetting, I was reassured by the conversation. The midwife I spoke to went through what happened according to the notes that were made during my labour and she picked up several things that she wasn't happy with and would address with the team, including a few things about consent. I found it reassuring that there wasn't anything that could haven been done differently in regards to the speed of my labour (it was LONG) and the end result of a c section. I also found it helpful because I want to try for a VBAC potentially next time. She was really lovely and spent so much time and care going through it with me, I felt it really mattered to her/ the hospital

@Phoebe hey, I think it’s answers I want. I would too like a VBAC My whole labour was an absolute disaster. My midwife accidentally broke my waters during my sweep and I didn’t go into labour. Had to have horemone drip - 36 hours later from my waters braking I was only 2.5cm and they said I couldn’t continue any longer as I wasn’t progressing and baby was getting distressed. Had the c section thought that was the worst of it - then I had complications with the epidural that was mistakenly put into the wrong place resulting in a post dural leak (after telling them for hours something wasn’t right) and then had to go back to theatre. I missed the first week of my babies life cause I was so unwell. Hopefully I find it beneficial but feel like I’ll be in floods of tears the minute we walk into that room 😭 xx

Can I ask how it went? I have mine on Wednesday and I am feeling the same

@Jamie it’s tomorrow! I’ll message you at some point xx

@Kira thank you !