Forum Medical

No trust in the midwife

2 replies

Saartje
Hi

We are the proud parents of a little boy who is almost 1.5 years old now. We hope to get pregnant with a second one soon.
But I guess I'm already thinking ahead a bit too eagerly. Our son was born weighing 2580 grams at 38 weeks. Just underweight (dysmature). When I look at photos now, I really feel he looked very poor. He was long (51 cm) but sooooo skinny, with a really sunken tummy and face, and stick-like arms and legs. Luckily he grew very well afterwards, caught up his deficit, and didn't need to stay in an incubator or anything. (So I know we shouldn't complain; there are forum members whose kids had a much harder start!). We had a lovely postpartum period, and I found the midwife very nice.
But now that we're a bit further along and I'm hoping for another pregnancy, I'm having more and more doubts about the midwife. From week 28 onwards, I felt my son move much less, but still 1 or 2 times per 24 hours. It was my first pregnancy; I thought it was calm compared to the weeks before, but her response was: 'Yes, the baby has less room to move, less movement lately is normal. As long as you feel it at least once every 24 hours.' Also, I gained no weight from about week 25 onwards (before that only about 5 kg or so). My belly hardly grew at all; a few times when measuring at the midwife's, the circumference was exactly the same down to the centimeter. But well, maybe it grew more in width or I had a long torso or something. Conclusion: I didn't need to worry about anything. And the last growth scan was also all fine, a very average baby. She estimated 7 to 7.5 pounds. I discussed it with my husband on the way home: didn't you think she kind of pulled that line up and down the baby? Wouldn't it be smaller?
So the little one was born, and we were surprised that he was 'suddenly' so small. I know it can be worse, but in my opinion, the little one was really not proportional (long and thin), and it was as if his intention was to be heavy but he didn't get enough nutrition. We all have quite large babies in the family, all at least 7 pounds. We ourselves are average in height and weight, not skinny. Just typical Dutch build, you know

So my question now is: would you still go to this midwife? She is nearby in the village, is nice, and of course knows us now. For the next one, we'd definitely get more scans anyway, possibly at the hospital. Can I blame her for not noticing this?
And are there people who also had dysmature kids, who got a baby with a better weight for the second one?
Thanks

Replies

  1. Anonymous Guest #2

    The title isn't "No trust in the midwife." If that's the case, I'd look for someone else. Trust is really important.

    A midwife can certainly make a wrong assessment.
  2. Orchidea #3

    Indeed, if you have doubts, look for a different midwife right away. A midwife has to think with you for 9 months, so it's really important that it feels good, familiar, etc.

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