Midwife availability

[poorbuthappy]

I know there is a shortage of midwives and the frequency of clinics aren't their fault:

But, 20 mins every fortnight in my branch sugery?
What happens if there's a baby boom?

Is it like this in other places too?

Do you mean you get a 20 minute appointment every fortnight? If you do, you are very lucky. I get about 5 minutes every month and I am 37 weeks now. We are supposed to see the same midwife everytime but I am now on my third one. I am lucky though that I live in a city where the maternity unit is easily accessible so I don't have to rely on the midwife clinic if there are problems- I have been in the hospital about 4 times this pregnancy, I don't know how I would have coped if I had had to wait until my next appointment to bring up my concerns.

No I mean that the midwive is available for 20 mins every fortnight to see all pregnant women.

I'm sure its got worse since I had my little girl!

More MWs would be (or rather, the idea is that they should be) drafted in from the local working group of MWs, if the demand rose.

My surgery doesn't do them anymore, so we get sent to the nearest health clinic (about 10 min drive away) where there is 1 midwife available every tuesday. I've always got an appointment when I need one though. However, you can pop into our maternity ward at the hospital if you need to.

Our surgery does MW appointments on Tuesday PM and Thurday AM usually with same one if not then another of the community MW's. We also have a great meternity unit.