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Anyone opted for GP led antenatal care?

9 replies

Upwind · 26/09/2008 16:15

For various reasons I have little faith in my community midwife's judgement and she is the only midwife attached to my GP practice so it would not be easy to change midwife without making a big fuss. I can however switch to GP led care if I prefer and have my remaining antenatal appointments with my GP.

Are there any disadvantages to this?

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CookieMonster2 · 26/09/2008 16:31

GPs don't have as much experience. Another option would be to stick with the midwife but then see the GP, or even ring the hostpial directly if you aren't happy with something.

I don't really trust my midwife after her failure to act on a problem with my first pregnancy. When I became unhappy that she wasn't following up the problem I rang the ante-natal dept at the hospital, explained the situation, and they got me an appointment with a consultant. Seems like an over reaction but they were perfectly happy and as it turned out it was the right thing to do. I have stayed with the same midwife for subsequent pregnancies because most of the time I do value her experience, but I won't hesitate to speak to someone else if I think there is a problem.

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Lib76 · 26/09/2008 16:56

CookieMonster2, i think that is pretty unfair to say GP's don't have much experience in ante-natal care! on the whole within a gp practice there will be one gp who has a special interest in womens health, including ante-natal. at the end of the day gp's are much more qualified than midwives,(although there are some pretty guff gp's out there) so Upwind i would have no hesitation going with gp led care. I saw both my gp and consultant and was very happy with both

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Upwind · 26/09/2008 16:58

Thanks CookieMonster - my GP actually worked in obstetrics until recently so I am not worried on that score. I suppose I am really concerned about looking bad to whichever midwife happens to be on call when I am due to give birth - and if everything goes well I would like to have a homebirth.

It is not an issue if my current midwife happened to be on call for a homebirth as she was against the idea anyway, so I would realistically have to transfer to hospital in that case. She told me that first time mothers having homebirths in her care almost always do transfer, with a tone of pride If I wind up with a hospital birth and am unlucky enough to be in her care, I guess I would be able to request somebody else.

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Upwind · 26/09/2008 16:59

Thanks Lib76

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CookieMonster2 · 26/09/2008 17:04

Fair enough Lib, I'll clarify my point a bit further. Whenever I have been pregnant and seen any of the GPs at our practice they have not been able to correctly diagnose the problem and I have ended up at the hospital anyway. Advice from the hospital was that it was better to go straight there if there were any probs. That does not mean that I don't think the GPs at our practice are very good, its just that experience has taught me its better to see someone who is more specialised, be it a midwife or someone at the hospital.

Upwind - if you GP used to work in obstetrics then I guess you won't have a problem!

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Lib76 · 26/09/2008 17:11

CookieMonster, yeh it sadly is often the case that you will get a practice that doesn't deal with ante-natal care. your quite right though, the best thing is to go straight to the maternity unit anyway

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Minniethemoocher · 26/09/2008 18:28

I have never seen my midwife.

In the early days of my pregnancy, whenever I was due to have an ante natal appointment, she was on holiday, with no one to cover. On the couple of occasions that I have made appointments to see her, she has cancelled at the last minute, due to being on the delivery ward at the local hospital. This has thrown out my dates when I should have seen someone.

So I have seen my GP for all my ante natal care and it seems to have been OK. She specialises in women's health issues.

I am no spring chicken either at 44, I thought that someone would be a little bit interested in keeping a close eye on me...

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Tangle · 26/09/2008 20:33

Upwind - Sounds like your GP is well placed .

If you want a homebirth and you really don't want this MW there, you may want to consider writing to the head of midwifery / head of community midwife team stating that you do not want her involved in your care beyond this point and she will not be allowed into your house if she gets sent while you're in labour. It may feel like stirring, but if she's not supportive of home birth (especially for 1st timers) it may be worth doing as their shouldn't be any repercussions for you.

Maybe see how you feel nearer the time? If you haven't come across it yet the homebirthUK email group is very supportive and has a number of ladies that have personal experience of this issue (or variations on a theme of) - you could probably get a straw poll on whether writing such a letter magnified or solved the problems. AIMS could also give you some advice.

Fingers crossed things go smoothly for you from here on in and you get a good homebirth

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Upwind · 28/09/2008 18:35

Thank you so much for this - I am now reassured that the best option is likely to be switching to my GP

and thank you tangle for those links!