First GP appointment, what to expect?

[YoniMitchell]

Hi there, after IVF I'm now 9w5d pg and have been handed over to my GP from the fertility clinic. I spoke to our surgery yesterday and have an appointment with the GP this week.

What's likely to happen? I know she'll book me in with a midwife, but the receptionist said this will be at the hospital where I want to give birth. Am I expected to know where I want to give birth already?!

If I pick one place for now (convenient), can I change later on (best reputation in the area)? I also understand you can visit maternity facilities to help choose, is this the case everywhere?

After the intensity of the fertility clinic I'm feeling a bit lost (DH thinks I'm worrying unnecessarily).

Congratulations

Don't know if its different for IVF but usually the GP will say congratulations and send you on your way, you'll then hear from the midwife to go over health, history, support etc.

They will ask you try and do some research this weekend if you can its ok to switch but a bit of a PITA probably speak to the doctor too

I don't know if it'll be different because you had IVF but here's what ive had so far...(this might be a bit long, sorry, want to give detail!)

I called for a doc appointment when I first found out I was pregnant, couldn't get seen for 2 weeks and I tend to be a worrier so I was like "well I'm pregnant and I just wanted to see somebody" so they told me all the doc would do is say make a midwife appointment so I made one of those instead and still had a 3 week wait!!

Anyway the midwife appointment was the "pre-booking" and the woman I got was a bit useless to be honest. She went over a lot of medical history questions and then gave me some books etc. She was supposed to take some bloods, urine, height, weight and blood pressure too but she didn't. When I had 12 week scan I had the "booking" appointment also. They were a bit unhappy that I'd had no bloods ran yet so they did all of that...took my weight, blood pressure, blood samples, and went over more family medical history. Also gave me some random free vitamins so saves me money buying them I guess!!

I've just moved house and registered with a new doctor and I was told I had to make a GP appointment to get midwife appointments this time. So along I went, the GP seemed confused as to why I was bothering her but she took my blood pressure and just said to make a midwifes appointment on my way out of the surgery which I did.

Went to see the midwife, 15+6 and they just talked about how they're transferring my care over, they took my blood pressure and let me hear the baby's heart beat which was great! Got to do the pre-booking again on 27th and booking again on 2nd July though so they can do their own assessments. Also having all bloods repeated . Don't move house!!

As far as where to give birth, I thought I had to make that decision also and I looked into it a bit but I was told by first midwife at 8 weeks not to worry just yet, at 12 weeks it wasn't mentioned past me saying I don't know except for not a home birth. And at 15+6 I was told what my options are, I think they hoped for a decision but I said "I'm really not sure, but I've 5 months yet, plenty of time to decide right?" And they said that's right and to just let them know when I decide and see the midwife. I want a water birth so I have to decide fairly soon I think for availability but if you just want a simple natural birth I don't see why you'd have to rush into a decision .

Good luck, and congratulations x

Thanks for replying.

We have a v convenient, major hospital about 10mins away, which will be really easy for scans etc., but it's not got the best rep for maternity (big, v busy, not heard great stories).

Alternatively there's a smaller hospital about 20mins in the opposite direction, not so handy public transport wise for scans but it has a great rep. Leaning towards that one.

Sounds like we need to do some online research!

Wow Jacqui, they didn't help smooth the process for you, did they?!

I have detailed notes from the clinic (which they've also copied my GP on) so hoping we can start on that basis. We heard the heartbeat at our last scan with the clinic yesterday and have measurements as of then too. However I completely understand the mw will want to run her own tests etc. I'm hoping that as I managed to get a GP appointment really quickly (was at that one!), I'll be able to get the 12 week scan in fairly easily - not long to go til then now!

It's reassuring that I don't need to decide where to give birth so soon, perhaps I'll go for the easy one for the time being, then switch when we have more information on what's available and where's best according to our needs. Hadn't even thought about a water birth!

We're in SW London, so potentially we have more options than the 2 I mentioned above?!

Getting pg was such a challenge, we haven't allowed ourselves to even think about what's next!

I presume it varies by pct/health board, but I am only discussing the where and what of my plan next week - 37 weeks. No choice of hospital here, the midwife unit and labour ward are in the same building. The expectation is that only those with a clinical need go to labour ward in the first instance.

It was a bit confusing as to who to contact first here as well. My fertility clinic said to go through gp, who then said I could have gone straight to the community midwife. My cmw has her clinic at my gp practice, some are based in the hospital.

I felt a bit stunned and bemused to actually be PG just a couple of months after my surgery. Suddenly it's all midwives and scans and things you hadn't allowed yourself to think about thinking about. Hopefully your cmw will guide you through like mine has.

First of all, congratulations!

My doctor's appt was a massive leg down and it seems like a lifetime until you see a midwife let alone that 12 wk scan! Particularly if you are a fretful older 1st timer like me...

Not sure where you are in sw London but king's college in camberwell is amazing, and st George's in tooting also supposed to be very good

St George's is the closest, the alternative is Kingston.

Glad to hear Lou that St G's is meant to be good! I know a midwife who lives close to us who chose to give birth at Kingston, which seemed a good endorsement and has swayed us so far.

Clearly I'm panicking about his too soon!

Sounds like my GP apt might be a bit superfluous and I'll be on a new kind of 2ww for the mw appointment!

Haha no Yoni they really really didn't, it's a bit of a pain in the neck because I don't feel like anything has progressed since I found out I was pregnant really.

The main thing I'm giving thought to about where to give birth isn't which hospital but hospital of community midwife unit??

The CMU is much better in terms of how things are run and you get time with a midwife (unlike in hospital where they just check on you now and again until you're ready to push). Also being much smaller than a hospital they are more private and tend to be a lot nicer. However they don't intervene so if you have a need for forceps for example, it's a transfer to hospital. They also don't offer a lot in terms of pain relief: being active, water, gas and air, or an injection I forget the name of (this is okay with me because even if on the day I'm begging for an epidural I don't actually want one so if they can't do it then I've no choice haha!). They also would need to transfer you if you needed a c-section. Our CMU is 15 mins from hospital and when my MIL had an emergency c-section those 15 mins would have been too long. So there's pro's and con's to each. I'm lucky because our local hospital has a CMU within it and if they need to transfer you it's just to another part of the hospital so much less time, I think I'm going with that as its like the best of both worlds kind of thing.

With regards to water birthing I decided on this as I am really against an eppi and the less intervention you get the lower the recovery time (although everybody is different). I often find a nice bath helps when I'm feeling unwell or in any pain so I'm hoping it will help with this. Also you can still have gas and air with a water birth. And being born in water your baby will come up a lot cleaner than being born in air. Also your partner can be in the pool with you and can be the one to lift the baby out and pass him or her to you which I think would be an amazing way to involve my husband since I'm carrying it he could be the first to touch him/her . There's also studied that show water birthing is less traumatic for the little one as it is moving from the warm womb to warm waters that will remind it of the womb and then into your loving arms rather than out into cold air and then to mummy....I've done far too much research!!