When do you need to ring the midwife?

[RowenaDedalus]

Hi everyone.

I think I am about 5 weeks pregnant- I found out I was pregnant a week ago now.

I can't find the answer to this online, when do you ring the midwife to make your booking in appt? I don't want to ring too early and lose the pregnancy and then have to ring back (I know that could happen at any stage). Also do you just ring your GP and they arrange it, or do you bypass your GP? I want to ask one of my friends who has had a baby recently but I don't want any of them to know that I am pregnant! So I'm asking here

You usually have your booking in appointment around 8 weeks.

You can call your doctors surgery and ask to book in a booking appointment with the midwife. They should ask you how far gone you think you are and pop you in at a date around 8 weeks.

I got the midwife teams number from my gp surgery from reception. I would book in now as they are often busy so your booking in appointment won't be for a few weeks. They also need to forward your details to arrange a 12 week scan.

OK thank you! That's what I will do.

Firstly - congratulations! I think it depends where you live. I would check the website for the hospital where you want to have your baby (or your closest one if you aren't sure yet) and most of them with have a self referral or direct access number or webform to fill out. This will trigger your Midwives appointment and dating scan. It should also have some advice about early pregnancy.

It is pretty normal not to see your midwife until about 10 weeks so it can be a long lonely wait in the early days.

Some places need you to see your go first, but most don't. You can book the appointment in but they won't see you until eight weeks. Scheduling is tough with my midwife so I did it early just to get space reserved. The GP reception arranged it for me.

Where I live you have to pick your hospital, go on their website and fill out the relevant forms and then the midwife contacts you via post for your 8 week appointment. The GP will give you the hospitals to choose from if you need to but that’s it. Call your GP and ask, I think most trusts are different
Congratulations

It varies by region. I was told to ring in 7th week of pregnancy to arrange booking in appointment for 10th week of pregnancy. Your GP receptionist should be able to tell you how it works in your region.

I would ring now. I've always called them at 5 weeks. How you contact them is different depending on your area. Here we self refer, so I just called them directly at the hospital and set up my appt. Some places you book through your GP surgery or have to see the GP first (why I have no idea, seems a waste of money!). If you don't know, I would just see if you can find a website for them or phone up your surgery or the maternity ward and ask what they'd recommend. Personally, I've never gone through my surgery.

I wouldn't delay though. In the unlikely event your pregnancy ends in a loss, it's still a good idea to have been in touch with the midwives. I had a miscarriage with the pregnancy before this one. I'd already had my booking appt made when I found out. It was actually incredibly helpful to have already made that contact and to be in their sights. They were able to swiftly refer me to the EPU and the midwives there were lovely and supportive. So definitely not a reason to wait.