Consultant appt & 16 week midwife moved to phone

[Littlebee1990]

Hi everyone.

First time Mumma to be here just looking for some advice, firstly I know I got pregnant during a pandemic and this is by no means a moan, I just want to make sure I’m being seeing as / when I should be!

This is my first bubba (my first pregnancy ended in early MC), I have a heart condition and my mum also had preeclampsia with every pregnancy, a MC at 18 weeks and a stillborn at 34 weeks (I was emergency c section at 34 weeks as same thing was happening to be as her stillborn daughter) All of those things combined resulted in the midwife at my booking in appointment assessing me as high risk. She said not to worry that my 16 week midwife appt would be a call as the consultant would do my blood pressure & urine checks however now this appointment has also been moved to phone.

I called my local midwife number earlier (I don’t know any of them and only met a relief midwife at my booking in appt so don’t have a go to person) and explained the situation and they basically said if I felt I needed my blood pressure checked then I should contact my doctor and that all appointments are phone now due to the pandemic. (For context im in Essex in tier2)

I feel fine, symptomless and have no reason to be worried but wanted to ask if this is standard and I should just continue as they’ve suggested or is this unusual and I should ask for my urine and blood pressure to be tested?

Thanks, sorry for the waffle!

It is pretty standard now to have these by phone. At 16 weeks it is more about ensuring that you've had appointments that you should have had, that you have a care plan in place for your pregnancy as well as a chance for you to ask questions and often chat about the "fluffy" side like what to expect around baby's movements, talking about bonding etc.

Your mum having had pre eclampsia is a risk factor for you but it wouldn't be routine to start monitoring blood pressure and urine until a little later on in your pregnancy.

Your consultant will assess during your phone appointment whether or not they need to see you and if they feel you need blood pressure monitoring sooner than your next in person appointment then they will sort that out.

I'm 29 weeks (second baby) and met my midwife for the first time last week. It's bizarre compared to last time when I felt like I was constantly being checked on. Midwife would have seen me face to face earlier if I'd been very concerned though.

Thanks you so much for the comments and advice ladies, really helpful.

I fully knew what I was signing up for getting pregnant mid pandemic but I have a tendency to be a bit to chilled about things so wanted to just make sure this was normal and I wasn’t just brushing it off!

Completely normal - I'm high risk after 5 previous miscarriages and also having twins and my 16 week was also over the phone - just discussed my care etc and any concern I had. I'd raise your family history with him. When I was at an appointment a couple of weeks ago a woman was saying the hospital had given her a blood pressure monitoring machine to do daily at home - didn't even know that was a thing so maybe if you're really concerned have a look into that?