What does it mean if you're assigned a consultant?

[Pootles2010]

Had midwife appt today, not my usual midwife, she looked at my notes and asked why i was 'under a consultant'. I replied that i had no idea i was! She said, looking at my notes, that its probably due to an incident at 26 weeks (am now 33) where i had a fit, and got taken to hospital. They think this was just due to low blood pressure, and said not to worry, so i don't really understand why I'm assigned to a consultant.

So my question is, does this mean I'm higher risk? Will it be a consultant delivering my baby rather than midwife? I've never even heard of this consultant let alone met them!

im under consultant care and have been with all 3 pregnancies, and ive never had a consultant deliver my baby!!! and i had preeclampsia in my first pregnancy, and still just midwives at the delivery with the dr visiting to check on things a couple of times.

yeah you are probably under the consultant because of the fit, a consultant can keep a closer, more technical eye on the baby in pregnancy, and yourself.

any incident like that in pregnancy slightly raises the risk, but being overweight can put you in the high risk category, and can for the most part have no effect whatsoever on you and the baby!

But i don't understand what the consultant has to do with it all - never met him/her, so what difference does it make?

Forgive my ignorance, first timer...

normally when you get put under consultant care, at whatever point in the pregnancy you will see the consultant once (at least) before the birth to go over the reasons for referral, what they can do as a consultant to help. might be worth asking the midwife if they are planning for you to see the consultant at any point, cause otherwise theres not much point in just having it written in your notes and it serving no purpose!!

The consultant will have reviewed all the medical information regarding your fit and stay/short admission to hospital when that happened. He/she will also have reviewed your pregnancy records up to that time (and maybe your other medical notes to see if this had happened before, as obviously that ould be relevent to the health of you and your baby), and will probably be updated by the MW after each of your vists from now on - so that a more "experienced eye" can watch for anyth ing that may give them cause for concern.

If you were to develop more fits during the pregnancy or labour, the consultant is the one they'd be talking to.

Surprised you've not had a meeting though.

I was under a consultant with last pregnancy due to previous history, and a large cyst, saw him a few times. But he didn't deliver my DD, I had a normal midwife delivery.

I thought it was standard here to be under a consultant though dd2& dc3 I was high risk so would have one anyway.

You may be right, I was assigned a consultant this time too, and was told at 16 week appointment that I could go to midwife led care. I thought it was due to my previous history but it may well be the norm not sure.

Maybe it depends on the area? don't think it can be here though, otherwise she wouldn't have asked me about it. Its never been mentioned until now though, so wierd.

a lot in your care depends on your area, its still worth asking the midwife if your going to see a consultant at all, and what difference it will make to the care you receive

at our hospital everyone is under a consultant but i never got to see them when i had ds and haven't been to any appointmants this time but doubt i will get to see the consultant this time either. ask the midwife though and they should be able to tell you.

In my hospital everyone is 'under' a consultant too. I understood that this meant he or she had overall responsibility for your care, but you would only usually see them if there was a problem. If you needed to see a doctor you would see a member of your consultant's team (ie someone who works under him).

I did see my consultant 6 times out of 8, the other two I saw his Senior Registrar, might just have been lucky, but he did seem to attend nost of the clinics when I was pregnant last time.