Ante natel appointments...

[Shellywelly1973]

I met my midwife this morning. I booked in at 12 weeks with a different midwife, who was very stressed & managed to tell me very little & give me hardly any information.

Im now 16 weeks. As its not my first baby i won't see the midwife again until Im 28 weeks. She gave me some sheets with phone numbers & information if Im concerned about my pregnancy.

I've got a scan at 20 weeks but nothing else for another 12 weeks.

She mentioned about hospital policy regarding mums over 40 & MLU... I told her i knew nothing about either but we got side tracked so now Im left wondering what the hospital policy is. Im not intending on using MLU but having the baby at home but i haven't had the opportunity to talk to anyone about homebirth.

Is this a normal length of time between appointments?

Who & when do i discuss (or actually tell) where i intend to give birth to the baby?

TIA.

looks to be following the standard pathway see for example

I suspect over 40s may not be encouraged to use the MLU.

Homebirth decision can't be made til 37 weeks anyway, so maybe just do some personal research about the logistics? I'd do home birth if no 3 was ever to be considered, but as DS2 was unplanned, nearly unassisted, home birth, I've no ideas what the prep / criteria are!

I told my MW that I intend to have a home birth at around 30 weeks. She came to my house for the 36 week appointment where we went through everything then. Other than being told the different places I can give birth, research and finding out information on these places was left entirely to me, as was asking for whooping cough ad flu jabs - although we never got round to actually doing either!

I had an appointment at 12 weeks, 16 weeks then one at 22 weeks, to talk about the blood tests that I'd had at the hospital at 20 weeks with my scan. After that I think it was every 4 weeks up to 36, when it became weekly appointments thereafter.

I'm pregnant with my first so not sure if its normal to have less appointments on your second. Either way, the big thing I've learnt through my pregnancy is to not wait for the NHS to organise anything, research when you can and should have blood tests, immunisations, scans and MW appointments and book them early - thats if you want them all.

I'm pregnant with my second and I've just had my 28 wk app - the one before that was 16wks.

They don't seem to want to see you once you've done it before

However, my MW keeps saying if there's anything I need to discuss please just book in with her at any time.
I'd give her a call and go see her if I were you.

My next app is not until 34wks now. I'm pleased, means everything is going along nicely

It seems to be standard to go 12 weeks without an ante natel appointment nowadays. Its almost 6 years since my last dc, i have to admit it did feel like i seen midwife more then i really needed to with previous pregnancies.

With regards to the MLU. The Dr i seen at 12 weeks, due to an underactive thyroid presumed i would want to use the MLU as I've already had two births in a different birth centre. She didn't ask & i didn't respond as i hadn't considered it.

As i didn't respond or answer when she started talking about weekly monitoring from 37 weeks & induction on my due date due to my age... My thoughts were along the lines of don't be ridiculous!!

Like i said to the midwife today, i will deal with that if i get to 37 weeks!

Its just policies. I've never taken much notice of policies...

Hmm strange, I'm pregnant with my 3rd and at my last appt (16w) the MW booked me in to come back at 20w. After that one it's 28w; so I'll only have an eight week gap.
Not sure if it's down to where you are then?
Oh and we discussed what type of birth I wanted at my booking in appt (9w).

I'm pregnant with my first and have only had one extra apt to you at 25 weeks, went from 16 weeks to 25 weeks without any midwife contact, now every 3 weeks. I guess there's just not much going on at that stage for them to do regardless if its your first or not x

Gosh I've had antenatal appointments every 3-4 weeks!