1st midwife appointment

[Chelsd91]

Got a BFP last week after 10 years of TTC! I’m so anxious about it going away because I’ve never had a BFP before! (I have severe PCOS and was told I wouldn’t be able to conceive naturally!)

Phoned my GP to notify of my pregnancy and they said they passed my details onto the midwife team, no timescale given.

How long does it usually take to get an appointment? I feel like once I’ve seen a professional and they say everything is good I’ll prob be able to relax a bit!

Sorry for the rambling! Any advice would be appreciated xx

Congratulations!!
When I found out I was pregnant I was told to phone the midwife team myself. Once I gave them the info- dates, what hospital I’d like to attend etc they then said they would be in touch again around 8-10 weeks.
I had my first booking appointment to discuss myself and my partners medical history at 10 weeks and then the scan at 12 weeks.

In our trust, you get a booking appt at 8-10weeks, followed by an appt for your scan at 12weeks. So some time in the next few weeks, you should get the details of those.

The booking appt will be about an hour long and you'll need to give a detailed history of you and the baby's dad. Did you have fertility treatment due to your PCOS? If so, you'll also have a convo about whether you need to see a consultant. I was ok to be midwife led, until towards the end of my pregnancy when my baby's growth was dropping.

But mostly CONGRATULATIONS DD is 9months after a long PCOS battle (ending in three cycles of letrozole, which did the trick for us). Really hoping all goes well for you.

I informed GP (you have to go through them here) at 4 weeks because I was super sick and I didn't see a midwife until 21 weeks, saw a consultant at 15 weeks, had my dating scan at 13 weeks and a phone appointment with a midwife at 14 weeks.
The midwives in our area weren't great, I ended up changing at 31 weeks, the first one didn't do the HV referral, a physio referral etc.
So be aware that it may take a while to physically see someone.

Typically you are booked in at around 10-12 weeks, has always been like that - but if you have specific questions or concerns earlier do ask. Since covid the booking in appointment may be by phone with a request for you to get bloods down at the nurse at the gp.

Once you are in the system they will book you your scans and give you a schedule of check ups, they are closer together nearer your due date. If you are identified as higher risk at booking in you will be offered more check ups but may limit your choice of birth location.

It varies per area but not before 8 weeks because a lot of miscarriages happen before then. Until then the NHS website is really good.

I self referred at 4wks as I was advised by gp. I'm now nearly 7 weeks and still haven't heard anything x

I contacted my GP at 5 weeks who said they made the referral. The GP also said they would book me as consultant led due to ivf, then the secretary called me to say they aren't bothering with consultant led forms eventhough Dr said I needed it🤷‍♀️.

I'm 9 weeks now and still haven't heard anything. I'm panicking a little as I go away at 12 weeks, so we've decided to book a private scan if we haven't got a scan booked before holiday.
Congratulations 🎉

Congratulations!!
I self refered online at my local hospital. It took about a week to recieve an email with an appointment time for my 12 week scan.
The midwife will also make an appointment for the booking in appointment which I think happens a week or two before the scan. They don't do any checks on the baby at this appointment but ask lots of questions about medical history, homelife etc.

Congratulations! I self referred at 7 weeks. Currently 10.5 and haven’t heard anything on booking appointment yet. I do have dating scan booked for 1st April though x

Congrats OP. I had mine at 9 weeks it took
About an
Hour and a half and is just a lot
Of medical
History taking and they take your
Bloods.

Congrats! I had my first midwife appointment at 6 weeks (called my GP and the midwife rang me back and booked me in) then had my dating scan at 12+3. I did book a private reassurance scan in for when I was 8 weeks though to make sure everything looked ok x

With my last pregnancy my surgery had referred me at 6 weeks, and I had my booking appointment at 9 weeks.

Huge congrats op!!

I rang my GP, as had no idea what to do , who have me the number of my midwife centre and left a message. They called me back a few days later and booked me in for my first “booking In appointment - lots and lots of questions and taking some blood” when they estimated I’d be about 8-9 weeks.

However I was so impatient and didn’t believe anything was actually there, so booked myself in for a private a scan at a Window to the Womb centre when I was 7 weeks (that’s the earliest I think they can find something)

I am currently 8 + 4 and am yet to hear anything. I self referred online at 5 weeks. I won't bother contacting until at least 9/10 weeks but as someone else said it's hard to believe you're actually pregnant when I'm just left to it with no contact from anyone at the beginning especially since this is my first pregnancy! Again if I wasn't so tired and have sore breasts I wouldn't believe it at all!

To manage your expectations OP, your first midwife appointment won’t tell you “everything is good”. It literally is a booking in appointment to take a lot of details and get you booked into the system. The first confirmation that there’s a baby in there will be the 12 scan.

If you Google the NHS website has a helpful breakdown of what to expect at each midwife appointment and when they should occur.