antental care:1st consultant visit questions

[lynn1]

I'm booked for my first consultant appointment (17 wks) and I was told the reason I'd be seeing a consultant is because I'll have a cesarean. Does anyone know what takes place at this kind of appointment and how is it different from a midwife appointment? I have a midwife appt and the consultant booking two days prior and I'm just wondering if both are absolutely necessary given that they are so close together.

The midwife will deal with the here and now (fetal movement, heartbeat, urine test, blood pressure etc). The Consultant will deal with your future care in the sense of talking to you about what is being planned and why. IME the Consultant won't repeat the midwife's checks.

Throughout my pg I've had Consultant care and still had all my mw appts.

My experience is the same as camel - the midwife will do the usual antenatal checks and the obstetrician will talk to you. If anything comes up in the conversation the OB may do some checks themselves or get a midwife to do so (e.g. take blood, check BP) most likely while the OB sees another patient then they'll pop back in to see you. It's a bit like the hairdresser getting a junior to do the shampoo.

About your statement though:
because I'll have a cesarean
Not knowing the background I would go armed with a lot of questions about what they suggest / recommend and why. No-one can decide you're getting a CS. They can just give you info and let you decide. (OK barring medical emergencies when you can't give consent etc.)

My experience is different I have been told to cancel community midwife appointment as the hospital midwife will do all the checks before the consultant comes in the room.
In my last pregnancy I kept my midwife appointment for the day after seeing the consultant and she laughed and asked me why I hadn't cancelled as everything had already been done the previous day.

Might be worth rinign the midwife it must differ from area to area.

I see midwives as you would in a normal pregnancy, and I see the consultants as well, 18w, 21w etc

Consultant still checks my urine, blood pressure and fetal HB

My midwife told me to cancel appointments with her if they fell within two weeks of the consultant's appointments. It sounds like it's different depending on who you're seeing (and maybe why you're seeing them) so might be worth phoning mw quickly to check?

thanks, all this is helpful. think i will ring the midwife, as jenga079 suggested, just in case i could save myself a trip to the hospital.

Defo worth ringing your midwife to ask.

I'm consultant-led for different reasons, but the hospital midwife always does the standard tests (urine, blood pressure etc) before I go in to see the consultant & I try to spread the appointments with them & my regular midwife out as much as possible.

As far as I know I am seeing both midwifes and my consultant. My consultant seems to be organising other specialists for me and is dealing with delivery plus and the midwife is here and now concerns.