Claiming my blog
Hey, how exciting. I'm with Technorati now, if it works!
I will be back to reveal the recent happenings in my life in more detail, until then
- Operation
- Another Grandchild brewing
- Maternity services imploding
Lets play catchup
Today is the day we find ouy about Louis' hearing. I'm on tenterhooks, waiting to hear whether a stupid drug error may have given him a 'disability'. It's not over yet for little Louis in the hospital review appointments whatever today's results bring. At his 6 week examination the doctor discovered that he may have occult spina bifida, the hospital appointment regarding that is next week. Daughter and SIL appear to be coping well with the uncertanties involving Louis, but I suppose that I appear to be as well. Suffice to say that I had an extremely broken nights sleep last night contemplatig what news could be forthcoming today. What we all focus on is two little boys who are doing really well, putting on weight like the clappers, smiling away and, on the whole being, as their Mummy puts it, 'good babies'. Yes, there are nights when her sleep is in short supply, and days when it seems to be an endless round of feeding, winding and changing but it could be so much worse. Amy has now settled down with having the 'bruvvers', 'little lovies'. There were some hairy times in the first few weeks, a toddler plus one baby can be hard, plus two has been difficult.
Gosh. Other daughter has just phoned me to see if there is any news, she knew immediately from my voice that I hadn't heard anything and I nearly lost it there on the emotion stakes. I can show how worried I am with her, I feel I have to be strong and in control with Louis' Mummy and Daddy.
Back to 'the boys'. It's amazing how identical they are. Hair, eyes, eye-lashes, even weight gain. One week you think that they have entirely different personalities, but as daughter put it yesterday, 'Jamie's being the naughty twin today', so they are still not exhibiting different behaviour. It is extremely rare that one is awake and the other asleep. One will start stirring, not crying, just moving around and pulling faces and within a couple of minutes off goes the other one. I am really looking forward to when they are a few weeks older and they start to interact more with each other, and us.
Jack is at school three mornings a week. His speech is almost perfect now. The stutter he was displaying a few months ago has almost entirely gone and even when he does start it is hardly noticable, I think the only reason we do pick-up on it is because we knew it was there.
Izzy is the cutest little girl. She has remained quite petite and as a result it is easy to forget that she is 9 months old. For weeks now she has been threatening to crawl forwards but she never quite seems to manage it. Backwards, no probs but that important first trusting her arms will support a forward movement never seems to happen. It may be because she is a prodigious roller, she travels anywhere, through doors, round the furniture just by rolling. We have discovered that she is 'double jointed', fingers, wrist, hips, knees. If you want to feel slightly nauseous just watch Izzy's contortions!
Son is getting married next May. They have been living together for 8 years and have decided to 'tie the knot', I would have thought that a joint mortgage would be quite effective at making things official but it will be lovely to have a wedding in the family.
Still no phone-call. Not sure how to interpret this. Have to have (another) coffee!
Just visiting
Loads has happened since I moved away, not least these little poppets
Jamie and Louis. Born 23rd August weighing in at 5lbs 15 and 6lbs 2.
They were born by elective caesarian at 36 weeks and 1 day. Louis spent the first day and a half in SCBU as he was having problems breathing but since then they have been inseparable. Poor little Louis was also the victim of a drug error, we won't know if it has caused irreparable damage to his hearing until the end of October so we are all keeping our fingers crossed until then and he is being constantly subjected to whistles and claps to see if he responds!
My job-share partner of 7 years has retired, lucky thing but it has left me trying to manage a full-time plus caseload on half hours. This has all come at a really bad time as daughter needs quite a bit of help, I feel I may be spread too thinly (if only it was reflected in my size).
I'm still blogging, ranting away in my other blog but I do come back here sometimes.
Access problems
For the last few days I have found it impossible to log-on to my blog. I have had a multitude of thoughts leaping about but no where to air them. 20six appear to have a problem with my password, they tell me that it's incorrect, but I've just managed to log-on now with the same one so I know that its them and not me. I've also received messages telling me that my blog has crashed, all sounds a bit dangerous to me, what is going on?
Anyway. I'm thinking of having a break, somewhere colourful and appealing that I came across a while ago and just kept in reserve for if I ever needed to escape for a while. I took a little trip there yesterday and found it very relaxing so if I can't be found for a while, I'm possibly here, visitors will be welcome.
There are more questions....
Why are we financing Mr Blairs, plus entourages world trip? Is it in the interests of the country?
Why is Gordon going to become PM without a public vote?
Is he already PM? What with Tony away and Two Jags back from 'representing' us in the Carribbean and now hospitalised.
Why don't our M.P's have to attend every vote in The House? I thought that was what they were there for, to be our representatives.
How come the G.P's feel that they can fight any decision about them providing an evening/weekend service by quoting the NHS 'family friendly' promise. If it doesn't apply to other NHS staff, why should it apply to G.P's?
Why did SIL's mortgage protection policy cover him for breaking his arm motorcycle racing but not when he had to have a bowel re-section and then developed a wound infection requiring re-hospitalisation?
Oh balderdash
Job-share partner has sold her house. They are moving down to the West Country. She has handed her notice in. I am now stressing in a fairly major way. I know what will happen you see. The powers that be won't advertise the post until she has gone so I am likely to be trying to cover a full-time caseload on part-time hours. If I didn't have Amy two days a week I could just increase my hours and cover the work. If daughter was not having twins I wouldn't have the question mark about when I might have to be helping her out. Hopefully she will have the babies on the planned date and there will be no complications but I know that in this situation you cannot count your chickens before they are hatched, so I'm stressing.
Do midwives matter?
There I was, already to chat away about Lotus Birthing, I even had some pictures to go with my ramblings, when the media picked up on the fact that maternity care assistants are taking over the role of the midwife, it has really put any thoughts about placentae and what to do with them following birth on the back-boiler.
Speaking from my own experience, I have no knowledge of MCA's taking over my role. Obviously I would be concerned if I thought that this was really happening, but I don't believe that it is. Well, not in the sensationalist way that some media reports are waxing lyrical about. I am aware, and thankful, that some tasks are now carried out by assistants. I'm thinking here of helping Mothers breastfeed, bathing babies, assisting women in general hygiene, all things that midwives do, if they have the time, but really tasks that trained and experienced MCA's can do well. One of the articles about maternity services wrote 'Three quarters (76%) said they had seen an increase in their birthrate this year and just over half (53%) said the births had become more complex.', and there in lies the key to the problem, the workload has increased, the expectations of women have increased, but midwife numbers haven't. What would people rather, that someone who is able to do a task well carries it out and releases a midwife to care for women in labour and help them to have a healthy baby, or that a midwife tries to do everything and corners are cut resulting in nothing being done properly, and more importantly, safely?
This week The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has issued a statement about the Maternity Services, calling for the department of Health to invest in the service if it really wants to fulfill the aspirations of Maternity Matters, invest they certainly must as to date any investment there has been is invisible to staff on the coal face. I suspect though that government have come up with yet another pipe dream which they hope the goodwill of staff will turn in a reality, of sorts. That's what usually happens, a guidance, edict, command, call it what you will is issued, and more importantly publicised, and we are all supposed to make a silk purse out of a pigs ear. There we are, face to face with the expectant woman who has read all these promises, and we are made to feel duty bound to come up with the goods, but with no extra resources behind us. It's all rather like my recent 'rotation' to another unit, the manager sat there and decided what orientation I needed, she didn't come to me and say 'what would be helpful?' she looked from her perspective, probably thought she was highlighting the right things, and basically wasted three weeks of my life because I was no better off at the end of it. D of H decides that change needs to happen, speaks to a few 'heads up there own backsides' professors, consumer groups, Royal Colleges, doubtless NICE also had something to say, spouted forth to the public about how amazing the service was going to become, patted itself on the back, and is now waiting to see how the phoenix will arise from the ashes.
I know I sound sceptical, jaundiced even, but that is how most midwives now feel. We had our hopes raised back in 1992 with Winterton and Changing Childbirth, and I for one was naive enough to believe that things were going to change for the better, for the women I do think that much has been adapted for the better, but there is still so far to go to improve the maternity services and I, for one, don't think I have enough energy to carry on with this piecemeal way of working.
And, whilst I'm busy griping away, I read in one of the tabloids that midwives earn £60k a year, where? A consultant midwife maybe (according to my manager, who also carries the misleading title 'consultant' she only earns slightly more than me) but as a senior midwife I earn the equivalent of half of the sum quoted in the press.
Gosh. I do feel better for getting that off my chest!