First antenatal apt 6 weeks away!

That’s incorrect. Sadly, many babies are lost before eight weeks. That’s why the booking in appointment isn’t held until that point.

My booking appointment was also my first scan.

I filled in the form on the website at around 5 weeks (when I found out I was pregnant) and was sent a letter to attend the hospital at 10 weeks.

I got asked a million questions and scanned there and then.

This happened with both of my pregnancies - 7 years apart - however, I am in NI.

Op you’ve had lots and lots of reassurance that this is the standard timescale for nhs appointments but you seem to be determined that it should be earlier - have you considered private maternity care as this may be different?
my first of three pregnancies was 30 odd yrs ago and home tests were a week after a missed period and the gp surgery wouldn’t accept them other than to send off their own urine test which took a couple of weeks to get a result, then an appt with the midwife was about 3 weeks later so still around 8-10 weeks

Confused as to why if you're so familiar with how it all works you've made this thread in the first place? You may have worked in health and social care as does your husband but you're being very stubborn towards people giving you answers who have more experience in this than you 😂.

Anyone who's experienced issues in early pregnancy will tell you that the NHS doesn't really care, it doesn't have the resources to care and actually there's very little you can do if someone goes wrong early on. This absolutely influences the booking appointment date as there's a hell of a lot of data collection and blood tests etc which happen at that apt .. Doesn't really matter what the NHS website says.

Therefore, I just assumed they’d offer an initial appointment earlier for those who might need more support.

The thing is, those who really need the information and support and won't look things up online, don't self refer early. They often present late to care and we are often just trying to encourage them to come to appointments at all! So it's pointless offering an early antenatal for everyone so we can say "take folic acid".

Wow if you are shocked by this, wait til you leave the hospital with an actual real life baby and nobody tells you what to do!

The NHS can’t do everything and basically you are very much on your own. This is why there are huge differences in outcomes in both health and educationally for children that are born into poverty. If you know you need to take folic acid, then take it. Nobody is going to come knocking on your door to tell you to take it.

🤣 you've literally just taken what I've said and made things up. I explicitly said that I wasn't expecting people to have earlier booking in appointments.
I merely said that some people would benefit from it.

It’s also why the NHS does not scan until 12 weeks. Not only can early scans be hard to tell how far you are, but they would be wasting millions, billions of pounds on scans if they scanned at say 6-7 weeks. I know it’s not nice to say but the chance of baby loss is so much higher in 1st tri than 2 and 3rd.

As someone who has had multiple losses I do think the reason they don’t usually see you until 8-10 weeks is because so many pregnancies do end in miscarriage before this time.

If you think 1 in 4 pregnancies end in loss, and the majority of losses are before 8 weeks. That’s a lot of unnecessary booking appointments to put it blunt.

There is never a safe zone, but statistically most pregnancies will be OK after 10 weeks.

No I'm not. I just don't agree with you. And evidently, neither does the NHS.

You're completely missing the point.

As someone who had a high risk pregnancy, seeing a midwife weekly, with the risk of immediate referral to prenatal unit and a lengthy in patient stay was an absolute ball ache.
I would have loved to have been a routine patient with just 4 appointments. Everytime I was seen by the consultant, midwife or admitted the potential that my baby was no longer living was awful.
Pregnancy, for most is a very natural process, it is not a disease.
The appointments are timed to coincide with key stages to catch known risks

In the US they pay for every check so it is fairly obvious why you see the ob/gym more frequently.

I had five miscarriages before I successfully carried my DS almost to term. My 2nd pregnancy ended in miscarriage and when the midwife phoned me to arrange the booking in app I was so distressed. I had phoned the GP surgery but the message had not reached the midwife.

I’d also get used to not being seen much - after the 12 week appointment to the 20 week the wait is much worse honestly.

OP - 10 weeks pregnant IS early. Some women don’t even find out they are pregnant until then.
The booking appointment is very boring and long - it is all just registering you on their systems and answering questions about your lifestyle and situation. If something happens to the baby there is absolutely nothing you or anyone else can do to stop it. What difference would an appointment earlier make, other than be a huge drain on resource and NHS time. If you are pregnant I’m sure you’d look to see what you should be doing and not doing. For most people your instinct to protect your baby kicks in and you want to do what’s best.
Im not sure what you want from this post? You seem to be arguing with everyone who says that a booking appointment between 10-12 weeks is fine - which from the vote is basically 100% of people. Are you expecting us to say no no, you must be right and the NHS and all their vast collective medical knowledge must be incorrect?

If you cba to do a quick Google about what to do when you're pregnant or read a book then you're probably not going to bother with supplements and nutrition just because a midwife told you to your face.

Just look at the numbers of women who continue to smoke through pregnancy- all the ones who try to hide it from the midwife. Everyone knows you shouldn't smoke, let alone smoke when pregnant.

Congratulations! It’s such a weird time in the early stage of pregnancy when nothing is showing and you haven’t even seen the midwife yet. Best wishes.

Yep! I've had 4 babies and always made an apt with the GP a within a couple
of weeks of finding out. The only exception being during covid when they spoke to me over the phone and referred me the maternity service.

8-10 weeks is usual. NHS website have all info on necessary actions in early pregnancy like diet and folic acid. And honestly, I had a booking appointment at 9 weeks and then had a miscarriage at 11 weeks. Having to get myself “out the system” was administratively awful. Thus pregnancy I didn’t self refer for ages because of that experience. Given how common miscarriage is, there’s no point having the r first appointment too early. Honestly don’t get yourself het up about it.

Lives specifically troubled so as to prevent them googling about folic acid, but not to buy and take an early pregnancy test and engage with health services? I don't buy that really.

I think you'd be surprised to be honest. Some people have very troubled lives. I see it a lot. Also, I wasn't saying that they should get an early booking appointment, I was just saying I could see the OP's point of view. There are many vulnerable people that would benefit from early intervention. Obviously in many cases this would not be recognised until that initial appointment and I completely appreciate resources don't allow it.

How many of those disadvantaged women who wont/can't google anything will 1) know they're pregnant very early?
2) contact the gp/midwife promptly?
3) listen to the midwife when they wouldn't/couldn't listen to basic advice from other sources?
I imagine it's far more efficient to just provide additional care to those very few women who actually need it. I'm sure gps/social services will make sure vulnerable women are seen earlier.

Gosh, people on Mumsnet are really harsh sometimes!
I think many people on here are forgetting about the inequalities in health care. So while yes, you can Google the information; there are many disadvantaged groups that may not have equal access (or the knowledge) to information. I'm not saying this requires an early booking appointment. I think I remember being given an information pack before seeing the midwife.

I completely see where you are coming from OP and I'm not sure why people are being so harsh!

As for your original question, I think during my last pregnancy 5 years ago I saw the midwife at around 8 weeks. Congratulations on your pregnancy.

I'm currently pregnant and after registering my pregnancy, I was sent a link to register with Badger Notes which contained loads of reading materials, including stuff about folic acid. I was also emailed some leaflets and links about keeping healthy, diet, supplements etc

There's no need to hold an appointment to hand out leaflets imo. I felt I was given plenty of info from my trust in the early weeks.

And if you're not the sort of person who will engage with reading an online leaflet, you aren't going to engage with reading a physical copy either.

I remember finding out I was pregnant with my first. It’s so exciting and every day you think about being pregnant and what you need to do and it’s a very special time for you and your close loved ones. So when you realise that no one else really cares yet and won’t see you until 8-10 weeks, and that feels like a million years away, it can leave you feeling a bit deflated. Pregnancy is long. The wait for the first appointments and scan can feel like a lifetime but it’s fine. Nothing to do until then.