Contacting gp

[tiffxxx]

Has anyone heard of there gp's letting there pregnant patients refer themselves to the midwives or is it just mine so I phoned my gp just after new year and stated I'd done quite a few pregnancy tests whether it be on the strips or sticks and each one of them had 2 lines and my digital threw up pregnant 1-2. I was just wondering does that sound right or should the doctor have done his checks on me aswel

Yes I'm a GP and it has been self referral where I am for over a decade. We don't repeat home tests. Congratulations! Do see your GP if anything complex eg you're on meds and not sure if safe in pregnancy.

As pp said there are no such checks you’ve got a positive test and then you see the midwife

Okay thank you i was just making sure

It’s self referral where I am too but for medical reasons I needed a blood test so I had that done before self referring.
I thought it was strange when I was pregnant with my first!

It must of all changed since my first 2

Thank you and I will do I was already on folic acid as that's what he asked about

I also found it very strange that in the UK, no-one actually confirms your pregnancy!

It's self referral in my area too. Booking in appt at 8-10 weeks then first standard scan at 12/13 weeks.

Nothing before that.

I'm so glad it's not just me thinking it was a bit strange

Been standard here since my first pregnancy 12 years ago. Congrats OP!

Wow so yeah it's all changed since I had my last one 16 years ago and thank you

I wonder how many people turn up for booking in appointments that aren't actually pregnant, they have had a false positive or misread the test 🫣. Congratulations though OP!

Yeah very true but I done about 5 strips a normal test and a digital and all came up and thank you

I said this to my partner when we were walking back from my booking appointment.. he made the fair point that most would get a period in that time. So maybe it's that?! Does seem odd tho!

As a GP for 20 years I've never seen a letter about that happening. False positive pregnancy tests don't happen

Very true. I think years ago a pregnancy was only confirmed by missing 2 periods. That's probably where the 8-10 weeks come from

First pregnancy in 2020 I could book with the midwife through the GP
Following pregnancies in 2024 at a different GP I fill in a form and the midwife phones me the next week to arrange a booking appointment and see if I need anything in the meantime. I'm on regular medication and I always ask for my maternity exception certificate to be sent to me before the booking appointment so I can get my prescriptions for free.

Why would you need a confirmation? The GP has the same urine tests you do, in fact they're not as sensitive. It would be absurd to waste their very valuable time when adult women are more than capable of reading their own pregnancy tests.

I'm fully aware of that if just never heard about self referral that's all as it's been a while since I had my last child before this one

I've had one early pregnancy experience in the UK and the other overseas.
The one overseas they get you straight in for an early scan around 6 weeks as standard to rule out ectopic and make sure it's developing in the right place. Very different to the UK where you don't even have an initial appointment until 8-10 weeks so, yes, it was strange to me.