No 16/24 week appointment - feeling very anxious

[hmfair54]

Just had a call from my midwife this morning to say that my 16 week appointment which was booked for tomorrow, is now not going ahead in person. The 24 week appointment is the same. They will now be telephone appointments instead, i.e. no blood pressure/urine tests done for the next 8 weeks at least.

I completely understand why they're doing this, and I appreciate the efforts of every single person in the NHS right now, but I just feel so anxious about the whole thing. I'm just waiting for the call to say my 20 week scan has also been cancelled. Has anybody else heard from their midwives this morning?

That does sound frustrating. If you want to monitor your BP and urine yourself, it's relatively easy to get hold of the means to do so, so this may be worth considering if it's a concern to you?

@Persipan thanks, I didn't know there was a way of doing it myself, I wouldn't really know what I was looking at even if I did but I'll have a scout around online and see.

@hmfair54 I heard from my midwives yesterday - I’m 10 weeks, they have some very strict guidelines about waiting in the car and you’ll called on your phone to come in, the 16 week appointment will be on the phone but all others will be face to face, that’s what they’ve said at the moment anyway. I’m slightly concerned about blood pressure and urine not being checked as well because I’ve already had one urine infection.

I’d advise buying a blood pressure monitor and urine dipsticks off amazon. I have done both and both are easy to use if you follow the instructions- you can get somebody else to help you as well, but it should give you some reassurance at least. And google the signs of very high blood pressure and urine infections, just so you can also be super aware of anything that may be going on in your body as well. This is what I will be doing, I’m 27 weeks but have no idea if any appointments going forward are going ahead or not yet.

I spoke to mine this morning am 35 weeks and all my appointments are still happening as normal so my 36 week appointment and my 37 week growth scan only thing that has changed is that I can now only have 1 birth partner in the room with me when I do go into labour x

Hi I can totally understand your anxiety, you can pick yourself up a home bp machine from boots or a chemist and monitor that yourself at home. In your maternity notes they should have written down your blood pressure from your booking appointment so at least you have a comparison. I have urine strips at home too but admittedly I can get them from work as I work at a hospital but again I think they are easy to order online. My blood pressure has always been around 120/80 which is considered normal and I'm 29 weeks but everyone is a little different x

Thanks everyone, it's so worrying. I think I'll definitely look into getting the bp monitor and the test strips, at least it might help me feel a little more in control of my body.

That sounds downright dangerous. Many medical conditions can be picked up through BP and urine tests, some of which are lethal. Not to mention the fact they need to check the foetal heartbeat...