Midwife care - Bedfordshire

[MinesALatte]

Hi, wondering if anyone can help, I’m in Bedfordshire and a FTM, currently 15+3. I have no midwife, I don’t even feel like I m have a community number to phone because the one number I have just goes to one woman who books appointments.
I have no 16 week appointment booked in, despite querying this two weeks ago. In my notes I have a number for phone ‘after 15 weeks’. I don’t know if that means phone it if I have concerns after 15 weeks or phone it to book something in, however I’ve tried it today and it just rings out, not even a chance to leave a voicemail.
In all honesty, feeling very unsupported but not sure if this is normal as never done this before. Can anyone shed any light?

Hey OP I'm sorry you're going through this. It seems to happen in most places now cause of the Pandemic. I would keep trying the phone to try and get a 16 week appointment or any kind of appointment. I think it's 16 weeks for checks and then 20 weeks for scan/sex of the baby if you want to know. Hopefully someone will assign you to a midwife or give you the community midwives number. I'm based in Scotland and they gave me my notes with all the numbers listed.

Do you have your pregnancy notes/pack from your 12 week scan? Mine has a sticker on it with about 6-7 different numbers to call depending on what I need (community midwives, labour wars, EPAU etc). I'm not the same area as you sorry so it might be different where I am.

Otherwise just do a google search for the antenatal clinic under the hospital/trust you're under as there should be a clinic or community midwives number on there.

If it's any consolation the 16 week appointments over the phone atm are a bag of shit, only lasts about 5 mins and is a waste of time!

Can I ask which hospital you’re at? As I’m in beds and have found it can be a bit different depending on where you are and how you referred to the midwife in the first place.

@F1rstt1imer I’m at Bedford hospital.

@CooperLooper - had a look at the stuff I was given at 12 weeks, nothing on there

@Strawberries4days thank you, hopefully they will 🤞🏻

X

Hi, I’m at Bedford hospital too and had a similar experience with my 16 week appointment. Luckily I had a direct number for the midwife in my book and contacted her to get it booked in. Fully expecting to have to chase up my future appointments too but the midwife is really nice so don’t mind so much. You could always ring Bedford hospital directly if your still not getting through with the other number? I also discovered the Bedford hospital Facebook page today which has some really useful bits on it about the hospitals approach to visitors/ live q&a sessions run by the midwives etc, would recommend a look and a nice way to feel a bit more connected. Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy!

Hey @MinesALatte I’m Bedfordshire too. I’m 12 weeks on Friday. I was originally going to Bedford hospital but changed to Lister a few weeks ago due to being closer to that hospital. All I was told was that I would of received a phone call at 16 weeks as my appointment would of been over the phone. It’s all very odd now with Covid. This is my 3rd baby and with everything going on I feel like a FTM again as it’s just all so different. Did you not get given your midwifes number as I was told that the way midwifes in Bedfordshire worked was different to the rest of the country as they were trying a new community midwife led thing. I was given 2 midwives numbers To contact at any point.

I had my baby in 2018. Bedfordshire midwife team. They were genuinely not fit for purpose.

I regret not getting private midwife care.

I ended up in a very dangerous situation because of them.

I will be giving birth in Bedford but it’s the community midwives who do all my appointments. Apart from my 16 week appointment being late due to Covid (wasn’t pre-booked they just rung me up on week 18 as I hadn’t had it yet and it lasted about 5-10 minutes) I have had quite a good service, but this is from my community midwives. I thought the community midwife thing was suppose to be a fairly new thing in the areas around Bedford so women feel more supported and tend to see the same midwife.

Have you tried messaging the Bedford hospital maternity Facebook page? I messaged them once about one of my Scan appointments and they got back to me fairly quickly. Maybe you will have more luck getting further info from there?

Hey OP I'm Bedfordshire area too & at Bedford hosp. Have you emailed self referring yourself as you are pregnant to:

[email protected]

They ask for full name, DOB, g.p details LMP etc.
I am currently 40+1 pregnant & FTM, I don't mean to bad mouth the nhs, but I've found the services really shocking & lacking in Bedfordshire, I am getting more info' from ladies on here. If you don't hear back, Can you call your doctors & ask them to help you? Congratulations OP

Thank you everyone!

@Theyweretheworstoftimes well that’s put the fear of god in me. Can you shed some light on what I need to look out for?

@Chocforthewin I emailed them at around 6 weeks and got booked in quite quickly With booking in and 12 week scan but feel completely let down since. Plus they messed up my first bloods so had to have a second lot

@xxxemzyxxx thank you for the advice, I’ll try the Facebook page (didn’t even know one existed!). I think I’m community midwife as I’m in a village outside of Bedford (I feel embarrassed I don’t know if I am or not but no one is telling me anything)

@KB13 I have this one number that says to phone after 15 weeks but I don’t know if it’s a midwife, I assume it is, but it just rings and rings. No chance to leave a voicemail or anything. There’s a sticker on the front of my book with four numbers so I think they could be midwives but I haven’t a clue and don’t know at what stage I should be contacting them

@Waiting4baby2020 sounds a similar situation to me! I’ll have a look at the Facebook page, thank you

Sent you a PM.