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Original poster

Why do you need to see a doctor first when you're pregnant rather than a midwife?

27 replies

pradabag · 12/01/2009 10:52

This is my second pregnancy and have just rung up to try and make an appointment with midwife. Have been told I have to see doctor first before midwife. Does anyone understand why? When I was pregnant last time I saw the doctor and said "I'm pregnant" and she said "Oh OK, take folic acid and make an appointment with midwife". And basically that was it, in and out the door within 3 minutes. Seems like a complete waste of time to me. I was hoping because this is my second pregnancy I could skip out the doctor and see the midwife straight away.

I can understand if someone finds themselves pregnant and isn't sure whether to continue with the pregnancy, that they might want to see the doctor to discuss options. However, as I made clear to the receptionist this is a wanted pregnancy and I don't need to discuss my options with a doctor. It just seems that I'm taking up a valuable doctors appointment to be told "go and see the midwife".

OP posts:
Stretch · 12/01/2009 10:54

Yep, same here with pregnancy 1 and 2, with the rest, I just filled in a form with the surgery. Complete waste of time going to doctors!!

bamboo · 12/01/2009 10:55

Oh this winds me up too.

What a waste of my time and theirs! I always assumed it was a bit of a money making exercise for GPs tbh.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 12/01/2009 10:55

I suppose part of it might be some legal reason (dunno what) and another part of it is that you may have an underlying health problem that is outside of the understanding of a midwife that may be affected by pregnancy.

CatIsSleepy · 12/01/2009 10:57

ah now i made the mistake of making an appointment to see the doc only to be told i shouldn't have bothered, and shoud have made an appointment with the nurse instead. like i was meant to know that instinctively or something!
gah.
think it varies from practice to practice

psychomum5 · 12/01/2009 10:57

because they refer you to the midwives IIRC. In my practise you cannot self-refer (or couldn;t when I was pregnant).

sill practise I agree, but seems to be the norm.

Original poster
pradabag · 12/01/2009 10:57

I even got the receptionist to check with a doctor when I rang this morning. Such a waste of time, particularly when its nigh on impossible to get an appointment with a doctor anyway. The only time a doctor can see me is next Monday!

Bamboo- hadn't thought of the money aspect, you could be right. Think I will be brave and ask doctor when I see him why I couldn't just see the midwife...

OP posts:
AnarchyAunt · 12/01/2009 10:58

I never had to - I saw the practice nurse for something else altogether in fact and she reffered me to the midwife.

Phoenix · 12/01/2009 10:59

At my docs this time (2nd pg) I went in to make an appointment and they said 'you need to drop a urine sample in first' I did that and rang a few days later for the result and they said 'the nurse has confirmed it's positive so you don't need to see a doctor' much less of a waste of time

Original poster
pradabag · 12/01/2009 11:00

the receptionist mentioned I could see the nurse practitioner at a push but she isn't available for 2 weeks!

OP posts:
Stretch · 12/01/2009 11:00

My Gp didn't refer me. With Ds and my last 2 pregnancy's I just walked into surgery, said I needed to register with MW and they gave me a form to fill in.
They did ask with the last one whether I had it confirmed with the doctor and I said no, didn't seem bothered though.

Lionstar · 12/01/2009 11:02

I was allowed to request a booking appt. with the midwife without seeing the doctor. Just as well because the doctor was next to useless first time around.

PortAndLemon · 12/01/2009 11:02

In my area the doctor needs to fill in the form referring you to whichever hospital you want to register at. Also, I suppose, you don't see the midwife until 13 weeks and they want to check general fitness, blood pressure, etc., before that. But that could easily be done by the practice nurse, TBH.

I suppose OYBBK is right, too -- your GP has access to all your medical records and can say (e.g.) "I see you are on medication X, we should probably switch that over to Y" or "we should look at how the pregnancy might affect condition Z". The midwife only knows what you remember to tell them.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 12/01/2009 11:07

I love it when people can make sense out of what I say

dinny · 12/01/2009 11:09

they refer you

Simplysally · 12/01/2009 11:10

I didn't see a doctor first - I had just registered with a new practice and I asked the nurse doing my medical if she could add a pg test. She told me to ring up for the result and either ask for the dr or mw, depending if I wanted to continue the pg. So I saw the mw first.

It wouldn't have been much good seeing the dr anyway at that point as it took ages for my medical records to follow me from my previous practice but maybe if you haven't been to the surgery for sometime, it's necessary for the dr to give your records the once over.

LittleMissNorty · 12/01/2009 11:12

Its so they can put something on your notes to say you're preganant and they get extra funding for it from the PCT.

nothing to do with your health and well-being, but much more to do with their take-home pay at the end of the month.

Same with smears and vaccinations......the more they do, the more funding they get.

traceybath · 12/01/2009 11:14

Its my understanding that its to do with funding but i agree that seems a little pointless when its not your first pregnancy.

I'm 11 weeks with number 3 and guess i need to get around to seeing dr and making midwife appointment at some point.

Original poster
pradabag · 12/01/2009 11:26

gosh traceybath, are you not worried about getting booked in for your 12 week scan? And if you're 11 weeks already... I am probably jumping the gun a bit though as by my calculations I'm only 6 weeks.

OP posts:
pooka · 12/01/2009 11:29

We always need to see doctor first. Then will get referral to midwife team and they contact re: booking in appointment. And planning the first blood tests and scan.

I have appointment to see the doctor on Friday. Think will be about 7 weeks then (ish - am not entirely sure).

traceybath · 12/01/2009 11:30

i'm going private for my scan so thats all booked for saturday - down here we only get 20 week scan on nhs and have to pay for any extras.

thats why i'm so laid-backed have already had a scan at 8 weeks as well.

midwifes also won't see you until past 12 weeks here.

although i did actually just phone the dr's and apparently the dr is going to call me and do her bit over the phone - hurrah!

PortAndLemon · 12/01/2009 11:34

Round here if I didn't sprint to the GP with the urine still wet on the test I wouldn't get into my first choice of hospital. I know people who've been referred at 6 weeks and it's been full .

differentnameforthis · 12/01/2009 11:38

I think it is because 'technically' you have to be refered to the midwife.

notcitrus · 12/01/2009 16:24

I went to see the GP (twice in fact, as the first one arranged an urgent scan to find out how far along I was, so then the practice said I needed to see a GP again).

Finally got a booking-in date of 22 weeks - phoned up and said "I'm 16 weeks already - could I have an urgent appt?" and was told that was the urgent one.

But what I should have done was called the midwives at my hospital as soon as I knew I was pregnant rather than wait for all the paperwork from the GP...

IwishIwasmoreorganised · 12/01/2009 16:33

I wondered that too! Since having ds1 our surgery have started doing telephone consults so whenI became pg with ds2 I asked for one of these.

Dr dutifully rang back and I told him I was definitley pregnant and he said that I needed to make an appointment to see him. Off I went, only for him to print something out sign it and put it in his out tray - could he not have done that without me being there??

Seemed like a total waste of an appointment to me!

claireybrations · 12/01/2009 16:37

I didn't need to see the doctor first with either of mine, it must depend on the area/surgery