I'm pregnant! But what do I do now? :S

[kikiroo]

I've found out I'm pregnant after doing a hpt! But I'm not sure what to do next? I feel as though I may be asking some very obvious questions but if there's someone out there who can guide me it would be most appreciated I have actually called my GP for an appointment but they said to pop in and fill out a form to register with a local midwife instead of seeing a GP or nurse. The thing is I have looked into the local hospitals and birthing centres and found a midwife led birthing centre I would like to give birth at. Is it best for me to go ahead and register at the centre OR do I go and register with a local midwife? But my concern is what if the local midwife I am given works for a different hospital to the one where I would like to be at? Or does it not work like that?.... Apologies again.. Feeling pretty clueless..

[Spam88]

As long as all the hospitals/birthing centres locally are part of the same trust then you should get a choice of which one you'd like to give birth in. So just go with registering with the midwife as advised by your GP and go from there. And congratulations!

[PerspicaciaTick]

You need to register with your community midwife, they will do your antenatal checks, booking appt., and arrange scans and blood tests. Talk to them at your booking appt. about your birth choices.
Congratulations

[kikiroo]

Thanks for the reply Spam88! When you say 'trust' do you mean e.g. the NHS? Great! and thank you! I'm over the moon and so happy but have an underlying fear of 'I-have-no-idea-what-I'm-doing'

[FlyingCat]

Opposite response to the posters above. In my nhs trust community midwives are attached to a particular hospital and while you can change hospital/ place of birth later it's a bit of a hassle to do so. So I'd suggest ringing your preferred centre and ask them what they suggest to make sure you are registered with the right team.

Also in case you were thinking about a home birth make sure the centre you use covers home births for your postcode.

In my area while there is a choice the gp's aren't really knowledgeable.

Good luck and congratulations.

[kikiroo]

Thank you PerspicaciaTick! So nervous! And a blood test.. ahh!

[kikiroo]

Thank you FlyingCat! I think I will do that first thing tomorrow and will go from there.

As much as a home birth sounds cosy I think it might be best to be at a centre/hospital with my first birth! A water birth hopefully

[SeventeenRainbeaus]

My old midwives (we've moved) done all bookings and referrals/scans at the same two hospitals. I had a bad experience at both hospitals so with this second pregnancy I wanted to avoid those hospitals so they let me book with a different hospital where they done the scans and took my bloods after scan (as they couldn't do bloods at midwife appt because I was booking with a diff. hospital) it's only for antenatal care though as I'm having a home birth this time, no hospital!

So I'm sure if you asked them they may be able to book you in wherever you want but things work differently depending on where you are.

[redjumper]

Congratulations! I remember in my first pregnancy being a bit disappointed that not much happens in the first trimester. The GP says 'don't see me see the midwife'. The midwife says 'oh it's too early come back at 8 weeks' then nothing else till the 12 weeks scan. Whereas in my head there was a constant fanfare and celebrations going on!!
Anyway, I just wanted to say, I had a home birth first time round. Obviously, do whatever feel right for you but don't rule it out just because it's your first time. It's probably good for first time mums to home birth as it gets you away from the medicalised birth route from the very beginning.

[anastasiakrupnik]

The other thing to do is take folic acid as that's most important in the first 12 weeks - but you might not find out until you see a midwife 8-10 weeks in. And look at the official latest NHS list of foods/other things to avoid in pregnancy. Congratulations

[Helbelle75]

COngratulations!
It's a really weird time, isn't it? I remember ringing the doctor's and being so pleased and then a little deflated when they didn't seem that interested, just referred me to MW.
I've found things like the pregnancy calendar on here, the Ovia app and NHS website to be really useful as at least you can get a clear idea of what you should be doing and what's going on in your body!