Pregnancy - first steps to arranging a midwife please help

[Agapanthus13]

hi all, this is my first time posting in the pregnancy forum. I’m currently 7week and need to take my first steps to sign up for a midwife etc. I’m feeling rather confused, and hoping someone can spread some light on the process?

it seems that if I sign up with the midwife for my local village it automatically sign my up for the local hospital which I don’t want to go to, but then if I click on the hospital I think I prefer their midwifes don’t cover my area. How does it work? it seems way too early to be choosing a hospital before I’ve properly researched them?

To add to the confusion, my GP is still London based as I stayed with them after we moved as it’s easier for work.

we’ve been having IVF for the past 3years so I think I’m struggling to acknowledge it has finally worked, I still can’t say the P word out of fear of jinxing it, so trying to think about the next steps feels extra confusing so apologies if I’m making a mountain out of a molehill.

thabks in advance

I guess it varies depending on the area you’re in, but where I live you can get in touch with your preferred midwifery service directly to make a booking appointment so no GP referral needed. Where you give birth is entirely up to you, it’s not linked to where your midwives are based.
I would just ring up your local preferred midwifery service, I’m sure they can give you the information you need.

My hospital care (ie where I’ll give birth) is one trust and my community midwives work from another Trust in a different area. They just send letters to one another. The hospital is still on paper notes, and the community are on an app so I just make sure both sides document in the paper notes. No real issues.

the only issue you may have is that your GP isn’t local. I’d look into moving that urgently, you’ll be prioritised as you’re pregnant, at least I did when we moved just pre pandemic.

good luck and congratulations

Thank you both.

@BeanieTeen how do you choose a preferred midwifery team? Just google and call?

First change your GP to a local one. You'll want a local one for baby as well and it's generally easier.

Self refer to the local midwives and then say you want to give birth at the hospital you want. Unless it's literally miles and miles away this won't be an issue.

I live in one London borough but GP, midwives and hospital I delivered in are all in another.

@Agapanthus13 you can use this site

www.nhs.uk/Service-Search/other-services/Maternity%20services/LocationSearch/1802

Pop your postcode on and it gives you a list in your area.

Call the hospital you want and ask their advice. The way i had to do it was call the maternity department at the hospital close to me to register with midwives even though I'm considering a home birth. You can always register at one place and give birth in another as my friend has just transferred at the end of her pregnancy due to a relationship breakdown between her and her original hospital.

Oh and congratulations 🎉

Congratulations. In my area you don’t self refer. You tell your gp practice you are pregnant and they then tell the midwife team. When i found out I wasn’t at a local gp as mine was easier for work too but i had to move to a local one. Took less than a week to move everything. At my booking appointment they asked me which hospital i wanted. I haven’t gone for a local one and it was no problem getting me in there.

You really need to change GP. You may be preventing someone local from being able to sign up at their nearest GP surgery.
And if you ever needed a home visit, you'd be jiggered.

Thank you all for your comments, and links to useful information, really appreciated 🙏

Where I live I can do an 'early bird referral' online by googling that. You then get a letter in the post 2 or 3 days later with a booking in appointment.

Tomorrow go and register with a local GP and they'll tell you what to do