Many English maternity units are below standard.

Hi, although I had a fantastic experiance when I had my little boy the actual antenatal care I recieved through my local mid wife in the lead up to labour was disappointing, although I never had blood tests lost, notes lost etc , I didn't have all the appointments with her that I should have according to the chart they give youas a first time mum. I had a fantastic hospital experiance however at Yeovil District Hospital, SOmerset during my scans etc, they were really good, I also had a great labour and post natal care whilst in hospital. This however did not really continue once out of hospital with the community mid wife who only turned up twice in th 10/14 day period after having my little boy. The labour wards were fully packed with babies whilst I was there and there were agency mid wifes etc as there were lots of births in the period I was there. However 3 years almost 4 years ago my sister had a completly differnet experiance at the same hospital, she had 3 epidurals, 2 that went wrong , one going to her brain which caused her to be unwell for a good month after haivng her little girl. She also had her labour notes lost and was sent homw with ill given advice about hte medication she was given to take, she almost went back into hospital but wasn't allowed to take her little 2 day old baby girl. with her. She also found the same community mid wife to be the same as I found her. I think everyones experiances are different ad that the majority of mid wifes do a great job under extreme pressure and that it really is important to realise that it is probebly not their fault and its down to the lack of funding etc and updating of systmes. Its easy to acknowledge problems but it seems praise for the work mod wifes do is not so commonly spoken about.

I had to wait for hours and hours to be seen at my antenatal appointments, they lost my notes, lots my blood results. the whole system needs updating, they don't even have computers, everything is handwritten and patients are expected to look after their own notes or appointments. Plus they are definitely not clean - i hate going to antenatal appointments for that reason!

Yes, I've read that too. There is a lack of midwifes too, so that doesn't help either. I'm having my baby at home, and I really don't fancy going into hospital if there are complications. The care is sub-standard and there are just too many bugs there.

I don't think this is very surprising. I don't know if it's necessarily the hospitals' fault, though. There just isn't enough funding.

It's shocking to learn that, in England, over four in ten maternity units aren't meeting recommended guidelines. The suggestions, made by the Healthcare Commission, are that the NHS doesn't carry out the 11 checks it's supposed to and that many women therefore may not be receiving enough information about their unborn baby. Hopefully, increased funding will help these hospitals to meet standards. What are your thoughts? Are you shocked by this news?