How do you discuss things with your midwife? I mean, how do I even find my midwife?

[Yellowflowers]

Hi,

This is a silly question but a lot of the answers on here say discuss it with your midwife'.

I am going to a big teaching hospital in the centre of the city for my pregnancy and delivery as I had been an outpatient there for gynae reasons prior to conceiving and I like it there. It is not the nearest hospital to where I live so I don;t have a community midwife or anything like that - apparently post birth you get passed to the local midwife team who do the visits etc.

My friend who is going to the local hospital has a local midwife based in a nearby community centre and she can pop by anytime to ask questions etc.

I had a booking in and 16 week appt but now nothing until 25 weeks - what do I do if I just have a question to ask? I wasn't given a phone number or told there is a way to contact your midwife at all. Would I be allowed to use the local midwife team my friend uses in between my visits?

I am in a similar situation, I will be having my baby in a big teaching hospital which is not my local hospital.

I am being booked in tomorrow with my local community midwife team and already have the number if I have any questions or concerns. This should be done through your GP surgery. Maybe give them a ring and ask them?

All areas differ and may depend on whether you are considered low/medium or high risk.

Where I work, the community mw does your booking appointment (we give contact details! etc) and discusses your antenatal care (doesn't matter where you plan to birth). If midwife led you will have all appt with mw (ususally 16, 24,28,32,34,36,38,39,40 weeks etc)However shared care would mean consultant appts at 16 weeks and 36 weeks (or more if required), and for some ladies ie twin pregnancy, all antenatal care is consultant led so rarely see antenatally.

You should be able to access local midwife - try contacting your GP and leave message for her/him (they may give you contact number)

i'm under consultant care for my pregnancy due to gyne problems, and i have a community midwife.

my mum who lives in a totally diffrent area has on occasion asked her midwife (i have a 10weeks old sister so me and mum were pregnant at the same time!) questions on my behalf when i have forgotten to ask my mw and i did the same for my mum when i've had mw appointments. i dont think it really matters if they are assigned to you or not, ime mw are very happy to help and reassure.

my mw has also told me that i can ring the delivery suite if i get really panicked about something and cant get hold of her or my consultant and ask for advice there.

if you need to assk questions, just drop into the local mw unit and ask them what you are ment to do!

thanks all - I will ask my GP

Some areas also have a "drop-in" midwife service where you can see community midwives between appointments. But I would have thought if that was available in your area they would have told you at booking in.

I know how you feel though, I found the wait between 16 weeks and 25 weeks an awfully long time!

You should definitey be able to book in with your local community midwives for AN care, even if you are going out of area for the birth. I am in the same position and am not seeing the community midwives, just the consultant, but this is out of choice - I could have seen them if I'd wanted to. Good luck speaking to the GP.