So, back from my booking appointment! I’ll share my experience just so anyone who hasn’t been has some idea of what to expect.
It lasted about 45 mins ish but they said it could be up to an hour.
It wasn’t the midwife I thought it would be but she was just as nice. Relatively newly qualified and also had a student midwife with her. They asked lots of questions (living situation, job, marital status) and asked if it was a planned pregnancy, how long we had been trying for, all that kind of stuff. They were happy and said I was very low risk.
The student midwife then did my BP. They asked to weigh me but I declined after reading Sara Wickham’s post the other day - give her a follow if you haven’t already! I am a size 10 and have a healthy lifestyle but I think BMI is out of date and from the research I’ve done doesn’t make too much of a difference. They understood my reasoning and the student actually said she was going to look into it some more. I then provided a urine sample.
Next it was bloods, because I alerted them that I didn’t want to look they said I could go through to phlebotomy (next door in my GP surgery to the midwife room). They said they are just a lot more experienced at being very quick and not noticeable. They took about 4 bloods from both arms - I felt like a pin cushion 😂 I came over so faint afterwards and needed some water, but I think the nausea and nerves around the bloods probably contributed to that.
Then I went back through and they just spoke to me about taking prenatals and the 12 week scan. They asked if I wanted the screening for downs, Edward’s and Patau. I said yes but now I am thinking would it change anything for us? We’d still want the baby even if the Down’s syndrome test comes back with a high result. I’m going to mull it over some more before the 12w scan.
A good experience overall- makes it all feel a bit more real!