Who to ask questions to when worried?

[strangerjo]

I can see myself becoming very reliant on this forum. If we have medical questions we're worried about or need reassurance, who are we meant to ask?
I've been told it's the midwife but mine takes a few weeks to respond. My gp tells me to ask the midwife. My pregnancy is considered 'high risk' but I don't have an obstetrician to see. Is there another option for who to contact, only with my hospital (uclh) I seem to go round and round in circles. I'm on a waiting list for cerclage but I don't have an appointment to see anyone for five weeks so nobody to talk to about it. I feel lost.

They do say the midwife, but like you, I can never get through to mine. It seems to be quite common from what I've read on here and other sites. I rely on this site, it's really helpful. Probably anything you're going through, another mum here has been through and can give you advice. If it's something I'm very very worried about, and as usual can't speak to my midwife, I'll do the online NHS symptom checker. They will either give you a call back, advise you to go into A&E or walk in center, or give you online advice. I know people sometimes don't like that NHS checker or 111 service because they say go into a&e too much, but while I've been pregnant the only two times they've told me to go in it was definitely something that I needed to be in for and was kept in so i do recommend it.

That's useful to know.
My midwife has been terrible in general. I'm sure she just has a ridiculous workload but she's forgotten to make referrals and is impossible to get hold of. Sometimes I have a question someone could answer in three seconds but I find myself worrying about it for weeks with nobody to ask. I've ended up paying private obstetricians which isn't ideal since I'm not working or receiving benefits so pretty low on funds.

If she's forgetting to make referrals, that's different I think. It's really important to go to the places you're to be referred to usually.
When I have seen my midwife, she's always very busy and has constant messages on her phone from mums and has a hard time chasing other people up to refer her patients to, but she still does her job and makes sure I go where I need to go.
If yours isn't doing that, I'd probably say you should change your midwife. You do get a choice to change if you're not happy or just don't get along with your midwife. It's really bad you've had to actually pay out because she hasn't done what she's supposed to be doing. I feel so bad for you.

For quick questions though, reliable midwife or not, I still think things like here or NHS online are better. I think most midwives, you'll have to wait a while for responses as most are given heavy workloads.

Thank you. I am seeing a midwife at the hospital but due to an error somehow also got referred to a community midwife. I thought I'd see the latter in case she was more organised but she's been away too and the person covering for her also forgot to make a referral so I had to do some daily chasing up to ensure it wasn't missed. I feel that at this rate I will have seen every midwife at uclh and every private doctor in London by March!