Or is this antenatal care not good enough?

[murkoff]

First baby, high rusk pregnancy. 34 weeks.

I’ve had a telephone consultation with midwife at about 7 weeks.

Then 12 week scan, then 20 week scan. Bloods done at 28 weeks. Then 32 week scan.

Surely I should be regularly seeing a midwife and be having some sort of consultation about giving birth? I’m starting to get very stressed and anxious.

I'm in a similar situation.

I emailed PALS, and had a call from lead midwife to get things sorted the next day

Suggest you try same

Good luck

LOL I’ve no idea who that midwife was! That was some time in April - it’s now approaching November! That’s not ‘my’ midwife, I don’t have a clue who she is!

My pregnancy is high risk as I’m 41, but TBH even if it wasn’t I’d be finding this all quite stressful.

I get you are stressed but have you contacted anyone at all?
Your GP surgery?
Local hospital midwife team?

You dont need a named midwife to contact you can just ring your health centre I believe most community midwife teams are run from GPS surgeries or health centres.

Call the ante natal clinic at the hospital you are booked at and ask to speak to the midwife in charge. I was an antenatal midwife for many years and this is completely sub standard.

If you’re only high risk because of your age then it sounds ok to me? I’m going from knowledge that the risk is in higher instances of disabilities in the child - I don’t know what other risks there might be.

I was high risk because I had TTTS with twins. I was scanned weekly, but that’s coz undetected the babies could have died.

I’m not sure I’m explaining myself too well, hope you understand what I mean.

Being 41 doesn't make you high risk by itself! 🤷‍♀️

I think you are expecting too much. Your care sounds normal to be honest for a normal first pregnancy since it's pretty normal for women in their early 40s to have babies these days.

You'll have been offered birthing classes presumably and at 36 weeks they usually discuss your birth plan. Presumably you chose your maternity hospital in the basis of whether it was midwife only so barely any drugs or consultant led so you can get an epidural

I find you have to be proactive and take responsibility for your own pregnancy - maternity care isn't here to hold our hands the whole way through. You have to take the initiative on a lot of things

I genuinely don’t know who to contact rolo, the GP surgery aren’t seeing anyone and since I am not ill aren’t the right place. The local hospital midwife team just tell you to ask at your next appointment but when that happens they can’t get you in and out fast enough.

I don’t know ms, Like I say for even a low risk pregnancy I thought I would be given a bit more info. I’m just going off friends experiences here who did have a midwife. At the moment I’m still at work and it’s very hard. My union have told me to contact my midwife but I don’t have a midwife so have no idea what to do. Ah well. I suppose the baby will come out somehow!

Of course you GP surgeryvis the right place!!

You call you speak to the receptionist and you say you want to speak to somebody from the community midwife team.

You do need to take the bull by the horns here OP. Yes outside of the pandemic you would have probably had more contact however you haven't so you need to get off ya butt and do something about it

Ring the GP today and ask them for contact details. Nothing will change unless you change it

You have a midwife team, call them. Their details should be in your maternity notes, or google their number.

Appointments sound ok, a few missing. They speed up to weekly normally from 36 weeks when you start discussing the birth.

I am also 34 weeks. I have been fortunate to see a midwife regularly.
As others have suggested, what you need to do is ring the local midwife office. You should be able to find this by either googling your local hospital where you had your scans and searching for the maternity information pages; or ring your local hospital switchboard and ask for that number. Other ways - if you have a green book then it might be written in there. GPs are open - they will be able to help if the above fails. They should be able to direct you to the relevant number.
You should be seen to have BP , urine check, and plan further appointments for birth plan.

You will see the midwife at 36 weeks who will recommend you are induced possibly at 40 weeks possibly before. Depends on local policy. I would strongly suggest you start researching induction and maternal age now as it won't be presented in an informed decision making way do you need to know the facts.

Well I’m not sure you’re right rolo. I just called them and they referred me to ‘my midwife.’ Who does not exist!

Yeah I have lazy thanks they have told me to bring it up at my 32 week scan which was 2 weeks ago. I got told someone would be in touch.

Never mind.

How did you get your matb1 form?

It was posted to me cup

I don't even know if this is an option but I'd be contacting a private obstetrician at this point just to have a once over. But loads of private gynaecologists won't see pregnant women and I have no clue if any (or many) exist.

Did you tell them you dont have a midwife OP?

I cannot imagine the reception just said "oh well" and put the phone down?

Can the babies dad not support you with this or a friend as you seem to need a full on hand hold to make a phone call or speak to someone about your needs. You shouldn't miss out on healthcare and if it means getting someone to help you sort this out then thats whats needed.

That's horrendous. I was higher risk and I must have had about 6 scans. Definitely ring.

Well don’t believe me then rolo! I just got ‘call the midwife’ and I said ‘but who’ and they said the ones at the hospital!

To be honest I don’t want candles or anything but I am terrified giving birth will exacerbate an old injury. Before anyone has a go at me, for not asking before, I have and I just keep being told that it will be discussed at my next appointment but it never is.

So call them then.

When they say wait until your appointment tell them you have waited 2 weeks already and you need to speak with someone as you are concerned.

I dont want to sound harsh as you are clearly distressed hence why I asked if somebody could call for you while they are with you.

I dont really know what advice there is left to give.

FWIW I believe you OP. I tried to make a routine GP appointment and was told they only do emergency appointments. I asked how to make a routine one and they said I couldn't. They were really unhelpful. Didn't offer any solutions. So now deciding whether a medication review for acne is worth feigning an emergency.

Look at the nice guidance for expected plan of an care.

I am in tier 3 area and am seeing my women face to face at every appt.

Birthplan is usually done at the 36week appointment.

Do you have any contact numbers on the front of your handheld notes?

You should have an appointment at 34/40, so it’s important you get this sorted.

Is there a number for your community midwife team? Or for maternity triage at your hospital? Usually you get given your date for your next appointment when you see your midwife, as you haven’t had any Midwife appointments since 29 weeks it sounds like you’ve slipped through the cracks. Ring your hospital maternity and don’t take no for an answer, make sure you’ve got a date for your next appointment.

Usually asking for the name of the person you’re speaking to ‘encourages’ them to be a bit more efficient

If it’s the giving birth part you are concerned about could you try looking for how the hospital trust is doing antenatal classes? For example, my hospital trusts’ website has a maternity page and links for who to ring/how to book classes. I think they have been on Facebook live and zoom etc but that could be helpful information for you. Hope you get better support soon x