First midwife appointment

[NewmumBeth]

I have my first midwife appointment in a couple weeks. From my research it seems like it will be a lot of questions, measurements. Somone mentioned they got a blood test (not sure if that’s standard in uk?). Anything else to expect? My husband was planning on joining me but I’m wondering whether he needs to?

thanks all !:)

They will ask quite a detailed history from you both so if your DH isn't coming, it might be worth having him on WhatsApp standby to call or ask him questions you don't know the answer to. From memory, it was blood test, height and weight measurement, BP check. My appointment was about an hour? I personally found it quite helpful to have my DH at the first one as the midwife talked us though what all the future appts would be. He just came to the scans after that.

Your husband doesn't need to go with you, it's more an appointment for you than him. I took mine to the first one but he just sat there like a lemon for an hour.

I'm currently pregnant and this is directly taken from my notes and is what I was asked in terms of family history

Family History
The term ' family' here means blood relatives only - e.g. your children, your parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts and their children (i.e. first cousins).

Has anyone in your family had:

• diabetes Type

-thrombosis (blood clots

• high blood pressure eclampsia
• hip problems from birth

Is your partner the baby's father Is the baby's father a blood relation First cousin Second cousin Other

Has anyone had: in your family or in family of baby's father

• a disease that runs in families
• need for genetic counselling
• stillbirths or multiple miscarriages
• a sudden infant death
• learning difficulties
• hearing loss from childhood
• heart problems from birth
• abnormalities present at birth

⁃ inherited metabolic disorder Age of baby's father

There's also a question asking if he has or has had any mental health problems too.

That's all they ask.

There's certainly one appointment where they ask any accompanying partner to wait outside so they can have a one-to-one about whether you're at risk of DV, but I don't remember which one that was, or if they just ask it at any point when you're solo.

If your partner isn't attending, just make sure you have information about any family illnesses -- the kind of things @SunsetDrifter listed. DH and I discovered, to our disquiet, that, both coming from impoverished, fairly dysfunctional backgrounds with lots of siblings and non-coping parents, that no one knew whether or not we'd had certain childhood illnesses that could be serious when pregnant, for instance.

Thank you this is so helpful. We aren’t planning on letting family know until a later date and therefore I won’t know a large amount of info about diseases etc - do they make a big deal about this or is it fine to answer - I don’t know ?

Well, your midwife wants to know if there are any foreseeable risk factors to look out for or test for, or anything likely to affect it being a viable pregnancy.

Obviously you can say you don't know (obviously there are people who have no grown up with birth family and who simply have no way of knowing), but ideally, you'll find out as soon as possible so any risk factors can be added to your file or ruled out.

It's one of the reasons some adopted people want to make contact with birth family, so they can get answers to some health questions.

It’s fine to answer don’t know. Some women don’t have any contact with their birth family and as such won’t know either.

There is a blood test and lots of questions. Expect it to take about 45 mins to an hour.