To find midwife appointments a bit useless, and wish I could just switch them to online?

Op I didn't read your whole post but I started to and I mean this kindly, but babies change your whole life and you have to adjust and juggle things like appointments, childcare. One day school might phone you to say your child has vomited everywhere and you have to collect them at the drop of a hat. They change everything and it starts in pregnancy. Take care.

Honestly, "safeguarding" of other women repeatedly being used as excuse for decisions like this has made me increasingly less sympathetic towards other women during this pregnancy.

I actually don’t even know what to say to this. What a ridiculous thing to say just because you’re being inconvenienced for a few months.

As Someone who sat in a lecture years ago and now regurgitates information from the NHS website I’ve saved a surprising amount of babies lives!

Stop going then. You’re not obligated to access maternity care. You sound fairly confident you can match the role of midwife at home, so crack on and just rock up for your c section. Problem solved. 🙄

Why dont you just opt out if you know better? You don't have to attend if you dont want to

If nothing else the appointments are a good lesson in putting the health of your baby ahead of any inconvenience to you.

The first half of your second paragraph is exactly why you should trust medically trained professionals. Frequently taking blood pressure will almost certainly reveal fluctuations in bp, which is a normal.
Midwives are trained for reasons. At 16 weeks I'd have thought you wouldn't be "out of the woods" yet, however, some people will deem that they are and infact go on to have issues at the end of their pregnancy.
Midwives are trained to spot the issues when you can't. I think you ought to be grateful to have midwives willing to see you without having to pay for your appointments. There are countries out there who have no such luxury.
Screaming at anyone who will listen that you like that you are being massively inconvenienced to have to miss some of your working hours to attend medically related appointments concerning your growing baby is neglectful of your growing baby.

Midwives are in short supply.
Appts unfortunately aren't always on convenient days or times.
You cannot do what a midwife does and that is a fact.
Your attitude to safeguarding is offensive and arrogant.
I am a midwife and thank God I'm not yours.

Midwife appointment can be at inconvenient times I agree- however given you have a legal entitlement to paid time off to attend maternity appointments (including travel time) you are unreasonable to complain.

You object to safe medical care during pregnancy by a trained medical professional.

That's some strange bullshit. 🤐

Then don’t go to them, no ones forcing you

You might as well get used to it now, parenthood is full of inconvenient appointments for things that aren’t really necessary, except when it turns out that they are, and a lot of waiting around. Just accept that state health care (and state education for that matter) don’t work around you, you work around them. It’s a conveyor belt, which snags frequently, and all you do by complaining and kicking against the system is wind yourself up. You will waste hours of your life waiting for HV to show up, waiting for vaccine clinics they inexplicably run at an inaccessible location ten miles away from main surgery, waiting for 111 to call back because your child is unwell and the GP won’t see them, waiting for “how we teach phonics” sessions at 2:30 on a Tuesday and the rest - it’s just how it is.

The alternative is to pay for your care, or just opt out entirely.

Goodness me the poor midwife.

This. So much bollocks on here these days.

I think you are coming across as arrogant (I know it all) and ignorant (you clearly have no understanding of the role of the midwife).

Why don’t you ask for a second opinion then? Or ask to speak to the relevant consultant in person.

TBH it sounds like you’ve just thrown your toys out of the pram and decided that midwives are useless simply because they wouldn’t do your bidding without question.

Just wait until baby is here and you have to wait around for the midwife to visit at some unknown time(if you are lucky they might specify am/pm).

YABU

If it wasn't for routine midwife appointments myself and my baby would now be dead. Stop complaining and just go. Attitudes like yours make me so angry

YABU. Just because you’ve had no problems so far you can’t dismiss the importance of being seen in person for many many reasons as set out on this thread. Midwifes have to undertake a degree plus on the job training: what you think is a routine appointment will probably consist of them checking a variety of things off which you’re not even aware of. You sound a bit patronising TBH.

Plus isn’t this more important than a couple of hours of work? TBH you’d better change this point of view pretty quickly because the endless appointments you have to attend with young children in random health centres at non-negotiable times is going to be a horrid shock otherwise.

Feel free to pay for your own private maternity care then & leave the NHS care to those who appreciate it. Oh wait, I imagine you do actually want help from the NHS when it suits you?

Do you think midwives just stay in clinics for all of their contracted hours so should be able to fit around your much more important commitments?

Have you stopped to think that clinics are just a small part of their role and when the clinic isn’t open they’ll be doing home visits, attending home births, supporting breast feeding groups, doing CPD and mandatory training, etc?

Yes, it’s irritating that the clinic doesn’t fall at a more convenient time for you, but the midwives aren’t holding it then just to piss you off.

You have been hugely offensive and dismissive to the midwifery profession as well as lots of other pregnant women who aren’t in the privileged position that you are.

I hope you stop for a minute and reflect on what you’ve said and your attitude.

If you think they’re pointless stop going.

If you think you can monitor better via your own tests, well then do that. You can pay privately for ultrasounds whenever you like.

As others have said - it’s there for when things do go wrong.

I agree they can feel a bit of a time drain if you need a day off / WFH plus travel for a ten minute appointment where all is fine - but, what if it wasn’t?