No midwife appts until 2020

[sophieb13]

Hiya,

So had my 7 week scan today at the ivf clinic and they advised me to get in touch with gp for midwife appts.

Called gp and they said they have no appointments until middle of January.

This means I will be about 14 weeks by the time I am seen by a midwife.

I’m quite nervous after the ivf and under these circumstances won’t be referred for my 12 week scan.

Does anyone know if there’s anyone else I can contact or escalate this to?

Thanks in advance x

Ring the local maternity hospital and ask to speak to the matron of midwives or a pma midwife.

Have you done the online self referral to your hospital, you don't need to speak to gp but may depend what area your in.

I can't find a self referral for my local hospital, I think it has to be through gp. I aM going to call the maternity unit on Monday, thank you both for the advice x

@sophieb13 all areas seem to have different referral systems so it's really confusing. I agree you should definitely get your 12 week scan but I have heard of some areas not doing booking appointments until around 14 weeks. See if you can get a number for the midwives. When I've struggled to find the right number I've just called any maternity number and they've been really helpful.
Massive congratulations on your pregnancy! We tried for years and had fertility treatment so I know this is an exciting but worrying time and you need the midwives support xx

@janey15 thank you for the advice. I have found a number for the local community midwifes so will try them on Monday. Even if I could just get referred for the scan so it's in the right time frame whilst I wait to see the midwife would be better than current scenario xx

The community midwife at my GP practice couldn't fit me in so advised me to ring the antenatal clinic at the local hospital and I had my booking appointment at 10 weeks with them, and then my 12 week scan there. After that I had the rest of my regular appointments at my GP practice, just going back to the hospital for scans. Good luck!

Try not to panic. The midwives will want to see you on time for the scan. I had to book my midwife appointments through the GP and when they didn't have any left they sent me to the hospital to see a midwife there instead. In my case I did self refer online and had my booking in appointment at the hospital though.

Oh and you will be due a 16 week appointment, so once you have sorted this, get that booked in with your GP!

Try not to worry, there's nothing a midwife can do before 14 weeks apart from refer for your scan, they won't do any measurements or listen to the heartbeat or anything so early.
I'm sure a GP could refer you for a scan? You can go under GP care antenatally, I had all my antenatal appointments with GP's until 36 weeks with one pregnancy.

I've just done booking in with mw and had loads of blood tests and other tests done. It took nearly two hours and the scan referral wasn't even done then. It was done when I sent the self-referral to the hospital- the ultrasound dept sent me a letter directly.