Can anyone give me an overview on consultant led care?

[weeblueberry]

I'm not even sure I'm pregnant yet (test here) but am still carrying baby weight from my first DD who's 14 months. If I am pregnant then my BMI is high enough that I'd be in consultant led care and I've no idea what that involves.

My BMI is 36.95 and the cut off is 35. So I'm about a stone too heavy. :(

If it's just for weight, it might mean that you see a consultant once, everything else is fine, and they refer you back to midwives.

Second what ohthegoats says, that's what people I spoke to found. Because of your BMI you'll have a glucose tolerance test.

If you do end up consultant-led the whole way through, you'll have regular-ish appointments at the antenatal clinic in your local hospital, and there may be a consultant present at the birth. I was consultant-led for a number of medical issues, and then induced at 37 weeks, and even then it was a midwife and a student midwife who delivered my DD, not the consultant.

It didn't really make a huge difference to my pregnancy, just more appointments and you may have to give birth on a delivery ward rather than a MLU or home birth, but MLU may still be possible depending on how the pregnancy goes :)

Thank you so much both of you. Would sincerely hope it's just an initial check then midwife led the whole way through. I'm overweight but it doesn't affect my heath if you know what I mean?

I've been consultant led due to a blood problem, but I'm also 40 and had a starting BMI 2 points over 'OK'. I've had an easy pregnancy - despite injecting heparin every day for the blood thing. My consultant said last week that if it were up to her I'd not have to go to the delivery suite, and could do MLU if I wanted.. but it's not up to her. So you know, consultants are pretty much alright really. Regards my BMI, no one apart from one midwife has mentioned it at any appointments at all.

I'm 40, and my BMI was 41 at booking in. Had my first consultant appt at 18 weeks and they were happy for me to go back to midwife led.

Thank you. I'm 30 so not sure if my age will be taken into consideration? It does just seem to be that my BMI is high so we'll just have to wait and see.

Might not even be pregnant yet ladies

I had a BMI of 43 so was consultant led but it wasn't really any different to my first which was midwife led.

I saw consultant after my 12 week scan just for a quick chat and saw him twice after that, had to do a glucose tolerance test (fast for 8 hours, drink a minging drink, bloods done in case of gestational diabetes) and I had to see the anaesthetist later on as DD was double breech to check my spine was easily accessible if needed.

I did have complications in previous birth though so probably more care needed.

I was consultant led due to about 6 different serious complications (not weight related) and serious complications in previous birth. I still saw my community MW for the usual appointments, but had additional midwife appointments at the consultant-led clinic at the hospital. Also saw a registrar for one appt and twice saw the consultant. I had additional scans and I did have to have an early c-sec this time.

You will probably need to have a glucose tolerance test - you stop eating about 8pm the night before, then go to doctor or hospital in morning where they first take a blood specimen from your vein, then you drink a very sugary special drink, wait 2 hours I think it was and then they take more blood from your vein. Then you can go home. You usually have to wait at the docs in between times as you're not allowed to exert yourself in any way. Try to get an early appointment otherwise you'll be starving, and take food with you so that you can eat immediately after the second blood test, otherwise you might faint on the way home!

Hi there,

I had consultant-led care in my first pregnancy as I was pregnant with mono-di twins and had complications, and I have to say that despite all the horrors of the pregnancy itself, the care was excellent and I really valued it being consultant-led.

I've recently found out I'm pregnant again and although I'm obviously hoping for a straight-forward pregnancy, I think I'll really miss the regular appointments, frequent scans and reassurance of the type of consultant-led care we had last time.

If you do end up with full on consultant-led care, just try to embrace it and enjoy the fact that you'll probably get to see your babies more frequently than otherwise.

Your test is definitely positive so don't worry on that score!

Test deffo positive, I'm consultant led this time and tbh its been a shambles I've never seen the same consultant twice, the consultant had to consult a consultant for an answer then they phoned me to change there minds! I've got high bmi blood probs and tbh felt like I shouldn't be doin this its taken us 2 years to get pregnant and my first midwofe was horrendous she was fatter thasn me which is great and she kept telling me its not viable you'll loose it before 24 weeks I'm now 35 weeks and slowly grinding to a halt