First consultant appointment-what to expect?

[Snowflakes1122]

I have my first consultant appointment coming up in a couple of weeks.

I've had 3 midwife led care pregnancies with straight forward births, but unfortunately I had a miscarriage last year and lost 3 litres of blood from retained placenta at 13 weeks.

Bmi/bp all normal and no other issues.

What usually happens at these appointments? I haven't a clue.

Sorry for your loss, sounds pretty traumatic. Congratulation on your current pregnancy, I hope you are doing ok.

I am currently 27 weeks pregnant, have one DS (5yo) but subsequently had 4 recurrent mc's over the last 2 years, one of which was at 12 weeks and involved heavy blood loss and hospital admission via a&e. I also lost a fair bit of blood in labour with DS.

I am under consultant led care now due to my history of recurrent mc's mainly, so may be different to your appointment. But essentially they just monitor you much like the midwives would. The appointment was very brief; took BP, checked urine, asked if I had any complaints/complications to advise them of, listened for heartbeat, booked me in for GTT (due to history of PCOS), and made a plan for labour to be in the high risk Ward. He booked me in for a couple more appointments and scans and these are alongside the midwives which have been scheduled separately.

From what I can tell it's just additional appointments to monitor your pregnancy and plans for labour.

My midwives asked if I wanted to see them as regularly as normal as they didn't want to bombard me with appointments. I said I would like to as my consultants bedside manner is not great and I felt a little like I was on a conveyor belt, but that's not to say you will get the same treatment!

Wishing you all the best for a smooth and happy pregnancy x

So sorry for your losses too. Sounds a tough journey for you.

Thanks for the reply. Its something I want to go to knowing what to expect roughly.

Have you discussed a birth plan with your consultant? I think I will have to have baby on the CLU, which is new to me.

Looks like you're due the week before me-I'm 26 weeks. Hope things are going well for you

Sorry for your losses. I am under consultant care but like Lucinda15 I had similar experience of first consultant appointment (I was 13 weeks though), it was just telling me things I already knew about risks during my pregnancy, telling me I had to take aspirin and that I'll be seen again at 20 weeks. It was all very fast and felt like it was a bit of a waste of time. I guess as you are 26 weeks they might be a bit more thorough and maybe discuss birthing plans etc as my consultant indicated there would be more of that sort of stuff to come as I got further along.