24 week midwife appointment

I had my midwife appointment on Wednesday and as a result I have made the decision not to engage with anymore midwife care and am also writing a letter of complaint about the way I was treated. I am tired of being belittled and judged because of my weight. I have weighed up the pros and cons of this and for me I don't think there are many risks. I am under consultant care, my next appointment is 28weeks which is when the midwife said to come back so my blood pressure and urine will be checked then, my sonographer also supports this move and has said he will get someone to check my blood pressure at scans, my next one being at 29 weeks. I just don't think getting upset, stressed and angry is going to help me or the baby. I have had an easy pregnancy so far and fingers crossed it remains the same until the end.

Below I have put a few examples of why I was so upset and disappointed with my midwife appointment.

My first issue is that I don't have a named midwife so far I have seen four different midwives which makes it hard to build up rapport or trust in the person, the care between the midwives varies massively.

My first issue with the appointment was the fact my blood pressure was taken with a small cuff, my blood pressure reading was 140/70 which I was informed was high, after reading the British Heart Foundation website I found that high is classed as 140/85, I must point out this is the highest my blood pressure has been. The midwife did try and find a larger cuff but none was available, the obesity levels in borough are high so I feel that this is a piece of equipment that is need by staff to ensure accurate readings.  I also would like to point out that the other two midwives I have seen at the surgery both had large cuffs to use.

Secondly, the midwife went on about my weight problem for most of the appointment, she wanted to refer me to the Lose Weight Feel Great scheme which I told her what they can offer me doesn’t work for me as I have tried before, she kept going on about it until I gave in and said to refer me just so we could move on from the subject. I informed her that I had lost 5 stone since January 2011 by following Slimming World from home to which she replied ‘so you've put it all back on then’ which I haven’t I have gained a stone back.  She then went out to tell me to start over and get rid of all the chocolate, crisps and cream cakes in my kitchen.

She asked about my exercise, I told her I swim once a week, go walking and am also very active at my job which involves site checks, she then said ‘well your body will be used to what you do at work so you still need to do extra’ which I had told her I do extra.

She said my breathing was heavy and asked if I had asthma, again another assumption, I don't have asthma I have a number of allergies that I am unable to take medication for at present. So if you have hay fever and allergies to dust then your breathing is going to be heavy especially when you cannot possible breathe through your nose.

She didn't feel for my uterus or listen to the baby's heartbeat as she didn't want to embarrass me by not being able to find it, the midwife I had at 18 weeks had no problem finding my uterus and even got me to feel so I knew where it was up to. 

Sorry for the long post and thank you for reading if you got this far.