Pregnancy anxiety- extra midwife appointments

[finb28]

Hi there I just wondered if anyone who's suffered with anxiety in pregnancy has actually requested additional midwife appointments at all? I know we are within our rights to do so but wondered what the actual reality of this is, it would really help me to just have those extra check ins with reassurance / heartbeat checking etc. any advice would be great
TIA

I have anxiety but asking for additional midwifery support is simply not viable on an already stretched NHS service. You can pay for extra scans privately but in all honesty, I would look at therapy to deal with your anxiety. Pregnancy is the start of a very long journey.

I didn't realise I had anxiety until much later but realise now the baby years, toddler years, pre teen years have been beset with my anxiety. Get help now and enjoy being a parent!

It might be best to ask for a referral to the perinatal mental health team if it is impacting your functioning. They can helpmwith the underlying issue.

I asked and was granted extra support.

Also got extra scans for reassurance due to high risk.

Just knowing it was available really helped and I only went to my midwife team a couple of times when I had any concerning changes. (Didn’t feel baby move or drop in symptoms)

You could ask.

Hey OP. I had anxiety before pregnancy but little did I know I’d be 10000 times worse pregnant. I’m currently 33 weeks. I see my midnight once a month BUT I go into hospital twice a week for monitoring of babies heartbeat. All you have to do is call triage and advise on your anxiety and they book you 2 appointments a week. I’ve literally just stopped mine as I have a scan fortnightly due to GD. My midwife is pretty rubbish but she’s there weekly if I want to go see her I just choose the hospital. They’ve been really good asking about my mental health and anxiety during this pregnancy. Good luck!

Thanks! This is my second pregnancy and it's worse this time, not sure if it's connected to traumatic labour but I genuinely felt over that after therapy last year!
@AimeeLou84 so you've just explained to them you're anxious and they've accommodated the extra checks? That's really good to know , maybe triage is the best way to go for the next physical checks. As much as I can get support mentally I do need extra physical checks. X

Towards the end I had an extra couple of visits for this reason, was with the homebirth team though so this may have been off the record x

@finb28 Yes so at my original booking in appointment I said I have anxiety and I was already worried about something happening to my baby. When it got to about 22 weeks I was worse. I didn’t feel baby move much at all so I called triage and said I’m worried as I don’t feel her move much and my anxiety is so bad so they called me in and after every check schedule another one in. 2 a week. They basically put you on a monitor to monitor babies heart beat and movements and don’t take you off til you’ve met the criteria. I’m sometimes there an hour but as long as it makes me less anxious I’m happy to be there all day! I have a separate ward about triage just for this at my hospital. Definitely speak to triage or your day assessment unit. I can’t fault the midwives at mine they always say don’t be scared to call in!

I have ocd and generalised anxiety. Ocd had been better understanding pregnancy but anxiety worse. I told midwife at booking appointment and was referred to perinatal mental health team and had first appointment within a month. I have also paid for an extra scan at the beginning, which near me are only £65 but I know this varies. I have other issues so have been having scans nearly every two weeks anyway and it helps, so maybe paying for the odd scaneorl help you too?

Yea I asked for extra support, including asking to see the same midwife each time and they accommodated that as long as I was willing to travel to the clinic where she was based. Which I was happy to do!
There’s no harm asking what your local midwife team can offer.

Thanks everyone I appreciate it x