Named midwife ?

[Bluepetra]

the midwife I saw at hospital says she's put herself down as my ' named midwife'. What does this mean? Does it mean I'll see her right the way through until after birth and labour ?

Sadly probably not, although I was keen for second dc not to see the vast number of midwives I had with dc1, so if you can if try to book appointments with same person. Some areas are trying to improve continuity of care, but I'm not certain it's working in practice?

It depends, as you mention hospital, im guessing your antenatal care is in hospital setting?

If so, unlikley to be the same one everytime, you can ask for an appointment with her each time.

Whereas in rural gp surgery, each area has an assigned mw. We are rural and my named mw will be the same all the way through except if she is on holiday

It depends, last pregnancy I never ever saw my named midwife and usually saw a different one at each appointment. This time (different hospital) it's early days but I have seen my named midwife once already so perhaps it'll be better.
I didn't find it a problem seeing different ones but sometimes they gave opposite advice which was confusing

I saw the same (community) named mw antenatally and postnatally too. But they are quite good with that around here. But when you give birth can't be timed around a specific mw obviously. Mine only did one shift per week at the hospital.

I was extremely frustrated during my last pregnancy. Although they were all lovely, I never saw the same midwife twice and I have a complicated medical history. We've now moved out of a city to a small town and I pretty much always see the same one (except when she was called for jury service). I even have her mobile and can text her questions if I want. Even when she was on jury service the other midwives were up to speed and unlike last time I don't spend half the appointment explaining everything again. Sadly it really depends on the area you live in for continuity of care!