in First time pregnancy , First time moms

Unsure about midwife now?

I had my 40+4 midwife appointment yesterday and I feel a bit nervous after this appointment. For context, I had a fully qualified midwife to begin with and now have a case holding midwife (student midwife) for the last couple of appointments. She seems lovely in general however yesterday she told me I’m 2/5 engaged and said how 5/5 is the most engaged the baby would be so we’re getting there. However I thought it’s the other way around and 1/5 engaged is the most engaged baby will be and this is what I’d been told previously. Another thing was when she did my measurements, she couldn’t find my pubic bone and asked me to point it out to her…I am not too precious about the measurements as long as something doesn’t look horribly wrong but comparing how the other midwife would measure me, this one is measuring me differently and the measurement is also the same as last time when I can clearly see my belly has grown so naturally it feels like it’s not accurate. There was another case holding midwife in the room who I’m assuming was learning and she kept interrupting me asking questions or my midwife answering the questions asked so she could fill out my notes. The appointment felt so chaotic and it’s making me feel nervous as I don’t want that to be the vibe of my birth.

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The midwife at the hospital will not be the midwife you see for your appointments xx

@Jade thanks Jade, in Leicester they do continued care or something (not sure what it’s called) but basically you have the same midwife for your appointments and at the hospital, which is why I feel nervous now 😭

If she’s a student midwife legally she has to have a fully qualified midwife with her for supervision so don’t panic too much, although I have never heard of the same midwife in the community to in hospital (also would depend if they’re on shift at that time too). Odds are it’ll be a different one for delivery. Each midwife will measure the fundal height slightly differently and the measurements can be inaccurate between different midwives (ideally the same one should do it each time for the same technique to monitor the growth). I know that sometimes how they say it is different to how they document so maybe check your notes to see what they’ve written in terms of engagement

All this seems pretty normal, I think different trusts note engagement differently for some reason and every midwife measures fundal height differently 🙄 its weird to call it continuity of care when you've already changed midwife once, so maybe you'll get someone else in labour anyway. Midwives are probably out of your control so focus on what you can control about your birth and stay calm. I know it can feel quite nerve-racking once you go overdue!

What happened to the other one? Is there someone at the practice that you can express these concerns to? It seems odd to me that someone who is still a student midwife would be teaching another student without having a fully trained and certified midwife present.

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