Disappointed with midwife services

[bme13]

Hello! I am 7+2 pregnant with my first, I am in my early twenties and it was rather unexpected but my partner and I are really excited and happy about it, our little one is due mid september.

However, I went to my booking appointment a few days ago and my midwife told me that as it will be my first child it is the policy in my area to be induced in hospital once you reach the due date. She was really patronising, I'm not sure if this is because I look around 14/15 rather than my real age. I have always wanted a natural birth at home, and she made out as if this will not be an option at all. This has made me apprehensive and worried as I really don't want to have to give birth in hospital and would much rather let things progress naturally. Has anyone else been told this? I live in South London.

She also said I wouldn't get my first ultrasound until the end of March, at which point I will be over 16 weeks, is this normal? I am really disappointed.

Any opinions/experiences.advice would be great!

I was at st Thomas's for my first two children, they were pretty good so if you're anywhere near them then I would contact them. They have a home birth team too.

If you go private I would recommend the fetal medical centre on Harley St. I had my Harmony tests there and you can get a whole antenatal package. The money they make goes back into their (well published) antenatal research rather than profit.

Sounds like the midwife you saw didn't know what she was talking about. I agree with everyone who's suggested contacting your hospital to at least get your scan date rearranged.

I also wanted to mention that just because your booking appointment was awful, that doesn't necessarily mean the rest of your antenatal care will be poor too.

The midwife I saw for booking was terrible - she asked me to fill in my notes myself rather than going through the questions with me and barely spoke for most of the appointment. She didn't give me an opportunity to ask questions and didn't bother to check my height, weight and BP (but somehow managed to fill in those boxes on my notes?!?). The bit that worried me the most though was that without even discussing it with me she recorded that I'd said I wanted to give birth at the local hospital. In fact I knew even then that I wanted to go to our local freestanding birth centre (if I can). I was really worried about it for a few weeks and then decided to ask for another appointment where the midwife said although it should have been discussed with me at booking, it wouldn't be a problem to 'change my mind' (well, change the record in my notes) later on.

If you're worried about what you were told at your booking appointment then if you call your GP's surgery they might be able to arrange an additional midwife's appointment for you to ask any questions that you've been left with - eg about induction and home birth.

The other two midwives I've seen since my booking appointment have both been lovely so I definitely wouldn't worry that all of your antenatal care will be as bad as the booking appointment. Hope you manage to speak to someone at the hospital and get things moving with changing your scan date.

Sounds awful. I've got my booking in next Tues (first baby too, but I am at the other end of the scale - exactly 20 years older than you !) I have fairly low expectations to be honest but yours sounds particularly bad.

When reseraching antenatal services (I am also in London, but North) I noticed that many have a link to a schedule of when you should have various appointments. Does your Trust's page have anything like this?

appointment schedule

As you'll see, this one says scan at 11-13 weeks. As others have said, you need to question the 16 weeks as that is too late for nuchal fold screening. At your age your Downs' risk is very low but it's not non-existent.

Good luck.