What is a Consultant Midwife?

[Bea18]

Help!

I have asked to be referred to a consultant as I had a previous 3rd degree tear 3 years ago which still hurts!

I was previously advised that with my second baby I would probably need to see a consultant to discuss my options.

Well this didn’t happen and my Midwife seemed to not really care. So I spoke to my gp about it who said he would speak to my Midwife!? And she has told me she will refer me to the consultant Midwife. What does this mean? Will she/he be able to discuss all birth options with me or just try and force a natural birth on me?

I feel like nobody is taking me seriously- even more worrying is that the gp said he seemed to be missing some of my records!!??

Has anybody had any experience of this? I would like some insight.

This is quite normal. A lot of trusts use a senior or consultant/specialist midwife in this way.

A consultant midwife will talk to you about your birth options, she will be able to talk to you about the chance of recurrence (which is something like less than 7%) as well as the risks of for example a CS over natural birth. She can look through your previous notes with you too.
If you are adamant you want a CS then she will be able to refer you to the obstetric team to look at this further.

The consultant midwives usually have a higher level qualification ie masters but are generally just speçialists in their area.

They don't usually organise these appointments until later in pregnancy because things can happen in the meantime (breach baby, pregnancy complications) which could mean different plans of care anyway.

I saw one in my second pregnancy. A consultant midwife can't sign off a c section. She told me all the risks of c section and was very pushy towards vbac.
I think that's my hospital though - it has natural birth policy. Hopefully yours will be more balanced. Good luck!