How do I get my medical records?

[myfairbabies]

I planned a homebirth, transferred to the hospital midwives (my midwife did not come with me), then 11 hours later had a cesarean with two OBs. Who do I call to get my medical records? What do I need to know in case I run into problems or people telling me I can't get them or have to pay a ton of money or something? What information do I need to give them (I don't remember the names of the docs or midwives)? Do I specifically request them from the whole hospital stay and will my dd's be separate? I want our records from during the labor, birth, and after. Any help would be great, thanks!

[allisonrose]

I moved after my first pregnancy and wanted to look at my records to make a bit of sense of my labor and birth (it was a vaginal delivery but way more interventions leading up to it than I wanted). I went through my hospital birth midwives' practice. They only had my prenatal and postpartum records. (They didn't charge me anything for the copies.)

I became pregnant with my second and began seeing a homebirth midwife. She gave me a form to request my records from the hospital. They will have the records not the individual midwife/doctors' office(s). So I filled out the form she gave me and sent it to the hospital. The hospital sent the records directly to her. (Again no charge but I don't think there tends to be a charge when things are going from one medical professional to another.)

To get a copy for yourself, I'd say check the hospital's website first. I had to get a record from a large hospital and everything, including a form to fill out, was right on their website. Otherwise find a phone number for the hospital and get the medical records office on the line and ask what you need to do.

I don't have advice about charges for records but a thought is if you are on good terms with your home birth midwife, perhaps you could request your records sent to her to avoid being charged.

[Jayray]

At my hospital (for other stuff, not birth), there is a records office.  You go in, give them your name (and maybe patient id number?) and they print them off for you.  I got mine right then because I didn't have very many pages--maybe 30.  They also didn't charge me.  I know they say they will charge you, but perhaps they only do that if your file is really, really long.

(I might have filled out a form, but I don't remember.  I do remember that I just went to the office and waited for them to be printed.)