16 week midwife appointment

[ducktile]

I've got my 16 week midwife appointment coming up, I'll be 15 weeks 6 days. Has anyone had theirs recently and able to shed light on what they'll go through please? I understand it may differ trust to trust etc.

Is it mostly a check in with the midwife? A chance to ask questions, have BP and weight taken? Is there anything I need to be aware of?

Thank you

www.nhs.uk/pregnancy/your-pregnancy-care/your-antenatal-appointments/

At mine she offered to listen to baby’s heartbeat but with a caveat it’s not always possible to hear at that stage. And I know friends in other trusts where they don’t offer this.

Thank you @Peonies12 I had a look at the link, they don't give away muchis it quite a short appointment as the first midwife appointment was over an hour! Did you take them up on the Doppler? I'd really like reassurance but wouldn't want to worry myself unnecessarily. I hope all was okay? X

If your trust does fetal dna screening then you may have blood taken. I'm rh neg and this was to check if baby was also rh neg or rh pos and so to know whether I would need the anti-d injection. I understand that not everywhere does this yet though.

My 16 week appointment was a bit of a non-event - literally just a urine dip and blood pressure check. No check of the heartbeat, my trust doesn't do that until 25 weeks. I went in with a few specific questions about particular things I wanted to know more about, but I was definitely in and out in less than the scheduled 20 minute appointment time.

Blood pressure and urine dip. Quick chat about how you are finding things
My midwife did listen to the heartbeat and checked me over. She said there was a possibility she wouldn't hear anything. I had been in a major car accident 2 days earlier and fell through the cracks at a&e so they hadn't checked me over - too far along for the epu but not quite 16 weeks so maternity triage refused to see me. She did the heartbeat first after hearing about the accident it brought a very nervous few days to an end!
After the booking appointment they are shorter. General pattern is urine dip, blood pressure and catch up. You might get some vaccines at different appointments and they do repeat bloods at some point. They generally won't weigh you unless you ask. I struggled with weight gain so i got her check my weight a couple of times. Some places weigh you again at 36w so there's an update weight should you need GA as an emergency but I don't think this we wide spread. I think it's after 25w that you get the bump measured and heart beat listened to every visit

Yep urine dip, blood pressure and a bit of chit chat for me, and a doppler. I said oh I thought that wasn't offered at 16w anymore, and she said they still offer in this trust but with the caveat it might take a while to find. I had some questions about travelling in 3rd trimester, and I queried my due date, but other than that it was pretty quick and not much else happened.

The appointments are much shorter after the booking appointment, maybe 15-20 mins? But depends if you have questions or issues to discuss. I did have the Doppler; was fine but midwife made it very clear it was not a concern if it didn’t work.

I had urine dip, BP and discussion of antenatal screening results. Plus quick discussion of new RSV vaccine. Offered the doppler with caveat that it doesn't always pick anything up at this gestation, luckily it did for me and had a lovely listen!

Yeah the 16 week appointment is probably the quickest because no blood test and too early to measure bump and most midwives won't check heartbeat at 16 weeks so for me it was literally just the usual BP, carbon monoxide and urine check, and a quick chat on wellbeing and foetal movements.

Mine was quite brief, around 30 minutes, but useful, she did:
blood pressure
carbon monoxide
urine sample
gave me iron tablets (would have been nice to get them 6 weeks earlier!)
offered and I had the whooping cough vaccine
confirmed my future appts/scans as I hadn't received any letters
and general discussion around healthy lifestyle, pelvic floor exercises, monitoring for fetal movements etc.

Didn't get weighed and no doppler. I'm in Cornwall if that's helpful!