12 week to 20 week, no contact from midwife!

[Jazzy1990]

I think it’s absolutely ridiculous, after my 12 week scan around two weeks ago I realize I will get no appointments till my 20 week scan. They didn’t even bother to tell me how my bloods were. The 16 week appointment has been scraped due to Covid. The least they can do is call you up. Unbelievably ridiculous. My friend is pregnant and In a different borough she’s getting two appointments atleast before her 20 week scan. I’m just so frustrated, first pregnancy and you don’t even know if something was to go wrong you maybe could have done something beforehand.

Sorry Jazzy this isn’t making sense to me, you’re going through the gp for everything? If I did that they’d just send me straight back to the midwives.

Do you have the midwife team number on your notes? Call it and explain you’re worried about diabetes and explain your concerns. I didn’t say just put up with what you’re getting, I think you do need to contact your midwife team directly.

I was just trying to reassure you that even in more normal times the 16 w apt isn’t particularly in depth so they must be trying to cover it at other appointments.

12 - 20 weeks was my least favourite part of pregnancy, even though it’s the bit where you’re meant to feel at your best! Just because there’s really bugger all you can do. There’s not much the midwives can do either. I know some areas have been shocking for Covid so won’t assume to know anyone else’s experience but to be honest my 16 week appt (which went ahead F2F luckily) wasn’t much to report on. I’m now 35 weeks and feeling pretty well looked after with fortnightly appts etc. I know it feels like someone should be doing something - I felt so weird just cracking on with life during that time - but actually most of the time all you can do in that window between the scans is eat well, exercise gently, rest up and let your baby do its growing!

[quote Jazzy1990]@BeingATwatItsABingThing I jus feel that from 12 weeks to 20 weeks is a big gap, I mean not even a phone call. Glad you got you appointments before Covid.[/quote]
It is a big gap, you’re right. Other than checking BP and urine and maybe heart beat, there really isn’t anything else they can be doing at that point.

Please don’t get a home Doppler. They’re really dangerous as they give false reassurance. There’s a reason a lot of midwives don’t listen at 16 weeks and that’s because it can be hard for even a trained professional to find the heartbeat.

@Hanrora06 Thank you for sharing my frustration. I will look into the online groups and definitely check out the NCT classes. I just called community midwife office. No one really understood what I was trying to say. I repeated around 10 times if I’ll get a call when I’m 16 weeks and the lady on the other end of the phone kept saying no one called you, I go I know no one called me I just wanted to know if they will and then she ended the phone call with saying the midwife that called you will call you back. Which makes no sense cause no midwife called me. Ridiculous.

The only contact you would have between 12-20 weeks is a 16 week appointment which is a few mins to check blood pressure and urine, heartbeat isn’t often checked so early as it can be hard to find and cause unnecessary worry. Gestational diabetes’s is tested for around 28 weeks (I’m high risk for it due to ethnicity). If you have any concerns call your GP or maternity triage unit.
I think the reason for so little contact early on is because the baby isn’t classed as viable until 24 weeks x

I understand that you ladies may feel like you've been left between the two scans but I can tell you its normal, at best you get a 16 week appointment which checks urine and BP but they arent necessarily going to pick up that anything is wrong with baby at that stage, they go off you, ask you how you feel etc like I say thats at best, there isn't a lot midwives can do before 20 weeks trust me I've been there, if anything is going to go wrong they can't stop it or prevent it, its why consultants aren't usually involved till after 20 weeks (I'm under consultant care)

If you have any concerns, ring the midwives! They are there to help and advise!

Also gestational diabetes isn't the same as normal diabetes, reducing sugar isnt going to change if you get it or not, it doesnt work that way.

@Sanch1thats really good. I know I find it so hard to believe the difference from area to area my friend just 15 minutes away gets completely different treatment than I do.

@BeingATwatItsABingThing so many people have now said not to get a Doppler I don’t know it was that unreliable. Thought I’d get it to calm my anxiety lol

I can't even get another appointment despite being 5 days overdue . No answer to emails and phone line engaged the entire time. Was told I was high risk and would be induced on my due date but now no one seems interested! I feel your pain. Think the system is falling apart.

[quote Jazzy1990]@BeingATwatItsABingThing so many people have now said not to get a Doppler I don’t know it was that unreliable. Thought I’d get it to calm my anxiety lol[/quote]
I can understand wanting to calm your anxiety. I had two early scans to do the same thing. It only really works for the day you’ve done it though and then the anxiety creeps in again.

I've had amazing midwifery and consultant care (now 24 weeks) but I'm very high risk and lots of issues. My community midwife is always on the end of the phone which has been amazing.

Having said that- bluntly, they cannot save your baby before 24 weeks. You've had scans to prove all is fine as much as they can tell at that stage. At 16 weeks my midwife did listen for a heartbeat but loads don't. The care ramps up after 24 weeks as they can save your child then.

Pregnancy is a really lonely experience - and I say that as someone who spent most of the first trimester in hospital! I hadn't realised beforehand how you just have to get through the first two trimesters. Things become easier after that.

@isitmethough please go straight to them! This is not safe! Your baby is at risk and so are you, please go to the maternity unit and demand they see you, this is ridiculous.

@October2020 it is absolutely very lonely. My OH can’t attend appointments with me so I don’t feel he 100 percent knows how it feels or understands why I’m anxious.

@BeingATwatItsABingThing I guess I won’t buy it then, but I will book a private scan around 17 weeks for sure.

@LBB2020 I do get that the baby is viable at 24 weeks but doesn’t mean that baby means any less to us. I guess a little reassurance or chat with your midwife goes a long way.

@Brandaris at the moment my gp is doing all the urine test and giving me antibiotics as needed. I called the midwifery team but they had no idea what I was even talking about.

I had a short 10 minute phone call at 10 weeks. Basically saying bloods are normal and asking how I felt and if I had any concerns and the whole balanced diet script again. Told me the name of my midwife and that I'll see her at 26 weeks and arranged the appointment.

I've been told to ring my GP with any concerns up to 20 weeks, but not told what to do between 20-26 weeks when I still haven't met my midwife. I had extreme pain last week (19 weeks) rang the midwife number on my notes for advice and they wouldn't speak to me as I wasn't over 20 weeks and advised me to ring 111. To which 111 told me to go to a&e, at a&e they told me I should have gone to the maternity unit. A&E had no explanation, did a qwick 30 seccond ultrasound which showed babys heartbeat& movement and sent me home. The next day the pain was even worse so I rang my GP who got me an appointment at the early pregnancy unit at the hospital but they weren't much help and had no explanation apart from ligament pain and to ring my GP if I feel like I need a stronger pain killer than paracetamol. This pain was unbearable and so uncomfortable, its dimming now but comes back from time to time. I do feel like before 20 weeks there isn't really anyone that listens about your concerns and feels like your concerns are passed from pilar to post sort of thing!

I would definitely recommend getting a private scan! We had one at 17 weeks and it was 100% worth it! It made the scan experience allot nicer and I was a lot more relaxed having my partner there.
I sat and cried in my car before I went in on my own at my 12 week scan. I have my 20 week scan next week and I'm so nervous for it! Having someone with you at scans/appointments makes a big difference and I just wish the NHS saw this as part of keeping our mental health in shape. Especially as stress isn't good for baby!

My booking in appointment was pre covid, our 12 week scan was the day before the full lockdown so fortunately DP could come. After that I had no contact until 20 week scan, I'm now 28 weeks and only now are face to face appointments creeping in.

I did move house during covid and registered with a new gp surgery, the midwife is lovely and gave me her phone number if I have any problems. The midwife at the old surgery I did not rate she seemed really disinterested.

It seems like it's luck of the draw with midwifes/boroughs.

Do you have a unit at the hospital where if your concerned about anything like fetal movement, you can go in a be checked? It's called the day assessment unit where I am.

I'm pregnant at the moment and although I think it's definitely a worrying time to be pregnant (and especially for FTM) I don't think the care is really any different to my first pregnancy, except that booking and 16 week are over phone.

In second pregnancy onwards there are no midwife appointments (Covid or otherwise) between 16 week and 28 weeks, so my next appointment after 20 week scan will be at 28 weeks.

You would normally have a phone appointment for 16 weeks so I'm not sure why they didn't provide that, but mine really was literally "hello, all ok? Let's book in appointment for 28 weeks" - I didn't expect anything else as there's not much more to say and there's a number to call if any problems do come up. I understand this quick call may be reassuring though.

@Jazzy1990 I'd suggest giving feedback through your local 'maternity voices' group. If you Google your area and 'maternity voices', you should get contact details.

I did this a few weeks ago on the the advice of someone on Mumsnet and felt so much better knowing that I'd spoken up for other pregnant women. I ended up getting a call from a head midwife who was brilliant and really helpful. She agreed that care hadn't been great under Covid and took lots of notes as feedback. It also felt better to be giving recommendations through a feedback forum. I would have felt uncomfortable complaining about bad care right now to normal healthcare staff, given they're probably overworked, overstretched, overfunded, etc. But I didn't want to put up with crappy antenatal care either, so this felt like a good approach.

Hi, I'm sorry some of you ladies haven't had good care in pregnancy so far. Just wanted to chip in with my 2 pence worth from a slightly different perspective if that's ok?

I'm a midwife based up in Scotland, so can only comment about the care my team and I give, and have absolutely no idea about other trusts. For us, we're still trying to see women pretty much as normal through pregnancy, the only difference being that the first 3 appointments are over the phone. So when women refer to us in early pregnancy they get a phone call around 6-7 weeks to take some basic details and give info like phone numbers and advice to take pregnancy vitamins etc. Then between 8-10 weeks, our women get their booking appointments over the phone - to go through all medical /obstetric /family, mental health and social histories. Women are allocated their community midwife and after the booking phone appointment, women will be brought in around 10-12 weeks for a very quick face to face appointment to take obs, urine and bloods etc, and to give women a big pack of pregnancy books and leaflets. After the dating scan, women will have a phone consultation with the Midwife just to see if there are any problems.

High risk women identified at booking also have a 16 week phone (or very occasionally face to face) consultation with the consultant to make a plan of Care.

After 20 week anomaly scan, care is pretty much all face to face with appointments at 22, 28, 31, 34, 37 and 40 weeks. Sometimes more frequently is needed.

So, all great in theory. Except covid has thrown up all sorts of challenges. It's slightly better now, but for about 8 weeks our staffing levels were less than half of what they should be because of midwives off isolating with symptoms, or shielding long term, or unable to work because their childcare was suddenly unavailable. At one point, I was looking after 3 GP practices. My caseload is normally around 60-70 women at any one time - I ended up looking after 150-160 for weeks because there was simply no one else in the team. Bank shifts were constantly being put out for extra midwives, but all the bank midwives were being drafted on to help on the inpatient ward, because women still need midwives in labour which is more important. So, in theory I should have been phoning women at 16 weeks to check in with them, but in all honesty I missed loads. I simply didn't have time. I ended up bringing my work laptop home most nights to check blood results etc after I'd put my own wee boy to bed, simply because otherwise it would be weeks before these were checked. I did my best. We all did.

I am sorry if I've let my women down - I know how worrying pregnancy can be (I suffered with major anxiety all through my own).

I know that several trusts have been prioritising care for women in their third trimester, simply because this is when the majority of problems develop or can be detected. Really tough choices have had to be made, and I don't think there's any perfect answer. It's not because we don't care - we absolutely do - but with staffing levels as they were on the middle of the worst of the pandemic, it got really really tough to provide care.

(please don't think I'm excusing bad care - I absolutely wish we could have done better. Just wanted to put my thoughts down.)

I'm under shared midwives as whoever was allocated to me is on maternity leave. But on my 8 week booking in appointment they told me they do 16 week appointments and that I'd need to book it in via my GP (and it wasn't automatically booked in their side).
My area currently still does the 16 week as a telephone appointment (but other areas are doing F2F).

Could it be similar in your area where they expected you to call and book in for the 16 week appointment (but failed to mention it to you)?

I’ve had 2 children and there isn’t generally a lot of contact with midwives (and never actually the same person in my case). They never went through any results either as such, I just got the printout to stick in my notes, same for the downs test, it just came in the post and I stapled it in. You would only normally have a 16 week appointment in between your scan and 20 weeks anyway and to be honest it’s a bit of a none event. Second child you see the midwife even less, it literally is bare min. I remember I found the gap from 16 weeks to 28 weeks quite long, I didn’t see a midwife at my 20 week scan, literally just went in for the scan.

I had extra scans with my first as I was measuring small but those appointments were later on past the 28 week mark when I guess they can actually do something (ie get the baby out sooner) if something wasn’t right. There’s very little point in extra appointments under 20 weeks.

@EBM20 I hope everything is still ok with baby and the pain has subsided for you. As for booking a private scan, I’m definitely doing that. I can understand how you felt at the 12 week scan, I hated not having anyone with me, spiked up my anxiety level to 100.!