I am lost with who is taking care of what along my pregnancy.

[BilboTheAlmighty]

Hi everyone! New mum-to-be here, with a lot of silly questions. One in particular is about midwife care and hospital visits:

When I first saw my GP, she told me to fill in a form saying they'd send it to the midwife who would then get in touch with me for my Week 8 appointment. Is this midwife going to be based in the hospital I chose for my delivery or is she working separately? Who do I turn to if I have a problem? Please bear in mind that I am not planning to deliver my baby in my local maternity unit.

Thanks for your help.

The mw will be associated with the hospital you get referred to.

Where are you planning to have your baby? With this pregnancy I go to the hospital to see the mw as that's where they are based, in my last pregnancy I went to my local health centre as they were based there.

I'm not sure how it works if you aren't giving birth in your local unit but I guess the mw will be under the borough where you live.

Your me will be your main contact and you can request if they can be there for the birth. Ask her the worse thing she can say is no.

It depends on the area. My area has community mws based in the GP surgery, so I would see them there. Others are based in hospitals.

Your mw will be your main point of contact though.

Ive got one community mw, one at the hospital and a whole bunch of conultants looking after me plus my urologist :) lol x

It does seem to vary a bit by area. Pregnancy is a self-referring condition, so you can just ring the local maternity ward and ask what you should do to get booked in - the contact details will be on their website. No need to go to a GP usually.

Oh just saw your bit about not delivering at your local unit. Call the unit you're planning to give birth in, they will probably advise you to get local antenatal care but there is some form of letter exchange required that they should take care of (eg my private midwife notified the local head of midwifery about my intended home birth).

Depends on where you are, Here we are seen by the community midwife who works out of the GP surgery for everything except from 12 week scan, 20 week scan, 28 week check if you have rhesus neg blood type and incase of any complications you would contact the maternity hospital. For most things we contact the team of community midwives but if, for example there has been any bleeding or not feeling baby move etc we would contact the hospital

Depends on where you are, Here we are seen by the community midwife who works out of the GP surgery for everything except from 12 week scan, 20 week scan, 28 week check if you have rhesus neg blood type and incase of any complications you would contact the maternity hospital. For most things we contact the team of community midwives but if, for example there has been any bleeding or not feeling baby move etc we would contact the hospital