First appointment with consultant- what to expect?

[FindTheLightSwitchDarren]

I have my first appointment with a Consultant this week. I will be 24 weeks.

I am under Consultant care due to previous shoulder dystocia.

I am just wondering what to expect really. I have loads of things I would like to ask about my last birth and chances of the same problems reoccurring. I am hoping I will get the opportunity to do this at the appointment and get to agree a plan. Is this a reasonable expectation?

Tia.

Yes, I should think so.

They will look at previous notes to assess severity and management, what your risk factors were at the time. Then discuss risks this time, reoccurrence rate etc and probably sign you back off to midwife led care but recommend you give birth on delivery suite as opposed to home or MLU (however this is not a dead end rule if you want to do this).

Thanks both.

HB is something I would consider if the consultant gave the go ahead, so good to know that won't be a dead end!

General recommendation if previous SD is birth on delivery suite. However it all really depends on what manoeuvres were used, how severe was it, what were possible causes (instrumental birth, induction, maternal obesity, diabetes). There are a lot of 'shoulder dystocias' that aren't really SDs.. practitioner just didn't wait for the head to restitute after birth of head and started pulling immediately (it can take a good few minutes for body to be born after head and must wait for the next contraction which many people don't, then you end up having SD documented everywhere when actually they just didn't wait!
If HB of birth on MLU are something you would like, you can speak to consultant midwife or whoever sees women who want something 'outside the guidelines'

That's really useful info, thanks mummy.

I was induced with DD, had an epidural so was on my back a lot for monitoring and because I couldn't move, I had a normal bmi, but had ventouse delivery. They got her out quite quickly with McRoberts, a big push and I think they pushed on my abdomen.

Will definitely discuss with consultant and see what she says.