Blog From A Broad

it's true, doctors really don't write legibly

A big giant envelope containing my hospital records and maternity notes arrived in the post last week. The whole process was surprisingly easy: I sent an email to the hospital, they emailed me a form to fill out and post back, and around four weeks later, my documents arrived. All for the low, low price of £10 (they can charge you up to £50, depending on the hospital). Reading everything was far less traumatising and upsetting than I thought it would be and in fact, there was nothing in there that I didn't already know. The main document of interest to me was the surgical notes, however they are written in scribbly doctor handwriting and barely decipherable. As far as I can tell, I've got a "v. floppy" something and my abdomen is "very vascular". Alrighty then.

The main point about getting these records was to go over them with my (independent) midwife the next time I'm pregnant. I figure that if she has all of this information she can a) help me make sense of what happened and b) can help me avoid this again next time. I'm worried about the lack of progress during my induction, particularly because one midwife uttered the dreaded "small pelvis" diagnosis at one point. So now I'm paranoid that Jack never went more than 2/5 engaged and I never dilated because I'm not built for birthin' babies. Yes, yes, I know. The truth probably is that nothing happened because Jack simply wasn't ready to be born yet. Doesn't stop me from being paranoid, though.

I read today that if you don't go into labour, your milk production may not kick in quite as well. Thanks for telling me this NOW. *mutter grumble*