"Community midwives"

Jenny Laws was an excellent midwife. However, due to her retirement, she was cutting down her hours and so it was not always Jenny that saw me at my appointments. All the midwives provided us with excellent care, Thank you! However, the inconsistency did create a slight problem in the post-natal visits. We had opted for my daughter to have vitamin K given orally and the other midwives had not known this.

When baby was 3 days old, our community midwife was concerned that baby might have had low blood sugar. Just before the midwife arrived, baby had slept for 6 hours and had just filled her nappy. This likely had quite a lot to do with why baby was lighter than the midwife would have liked and jittery. The midwife sent us to Raigmore, which was closed for norovirues, for a blood sugar test. I was very surprised that the midwives are not able to do this simple test. It would have spared us a wasted afternoon sat in hospital. The hospital trip might also have been avoided if the community midwives were less stretched and able to make a second visit that day. Perhaps the midwives decision would have been different if she had had the flexibility in her schedule to call back and examine baby after a feed.