First time pregnancy

[Stich]

Hello . So me and my partner found out we was pregnant not long ago with our first . I’ve contacted my GP about needing to be put in contact with a midwife but I haven’t heard anything at all . It may be normal but I feel so alone during this time and I just want a midwife to contact me so I can ask all the questions that are worrying me. I can’t help but go everyday stressing and over thinking Because I drank and smoked before I knew. Can someone pls help me .

Totally normal not to hear anything from the midwife yet. You’ll have your booking appointment between 8-10 weeks.

Drinking and smoking is very very common in early pregnancy. The baby gets its nutrients from the yolk sac in the first few weeks so baby won’t have been affected, it’s only once the placenta is functioning that things get passed through. Just make sure you have stopped now.

Also make sure you are taking folic acid and vitamin D.

As the PP has stated you will see a midwife between 8-10 weeks. You will get a chance to talk about things then.

What is it that is concerning you?

Most NHS trusts now get you to self refer (GPs don't really have much to do with pregnancy). Google your local hospital's maternity services and there may well be a self referral form you can fill in. It's likely the GP might just point you to a form to complete anyway :)

I didn't have any clue I was pregnant until well into the second trimester. I drank regularly and had some very heavy weekends, smoking as well.

Midwife didn't seem too concerned to be honest. I was booked for growth scans at 32 and 36 weeks as a precaution. Found out at one of the growth scans that there was an issue and things were measuring several weeks behind, went on a downward spiral and started blaming myself for everything that had happened when I wasn't aware.

DS was born around 37 weeks, perfectly normal measurements and completely healthy. He's 9 months now and above average for height funnily enough.

You'll be absolutely fine, I promise.

Hey,

I'm now 9 weeks 2 days and had my first midwife appointment last week. I was really worried and felt really alone too... The steps I had to take to get a midwife appointment were:
1, call doctors
2, doctors gave info to self refer into midwife service (had to be 6 weeks to do this)
3, await appointment

If you're stuck or worried about anything before hand book a GP appointment and ask them your questions. What I didn't realise is that a lot of your care is still GP, it's not all midwife. So don't be afraid to ask.

Good luck xx

@Sa111 really interesting that you still have care through your GP - where I am in Surrey you self refer and there's literally no contact with a GP outside of if you get UTIs etc, general maternity care is 100% done through the local midwife teams. It seems to vary so much from county to county!x

My midwife pack says anything to do with sickness etc is through the GP, and if you haven't got midwife care yet then where else are you supposed to go? Xx

@Sa111 we have a midwife helpline 24/7 to call and they refer us as needed :) so long as you have done the self referral basically everything goes through them except for if you needed a same day GP appointment for something (which is basic care rather than maternity specific care) xx

Thank you so much for replying it’s helped a lot with calming mine and my partners nerves . As soon as I found out I’ve stopped smoking and I only drank on special occasions and I have started taking folic acid . I appreciate everyone who’s responded you don’t know how much it means to me .

That's interesting. We have the medicom number too, but there's a list of things you go to GP for, and you also don't have access to the helpline until after your first midwife appointment.x