Do you have questions about pregnancy or your new baby? Ask midwife Hannah Harvey - £200 voucher to be won

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There are so many exciting moments to experience when you’re a new parent or parent-to- be, but it’s the unexpected moments when we all need a little bit of reassurance. Hannah Harvey, Juno’s expert midwife, will be here on the 1st of April to help answer your questions.

Here’s some more information on Hannah Harvey: “Hannah Harvey has worked as a Midwife since 2011 in both hospital and community settings. She worked for 3 years as a caseload midwife and in this time realised how important it was for the women she was looking after to be able to reach her whenever they needed to. In 2016 I developed a service called Ask the Midwife. Users could use the app to contact a midwife whenever they wanted and it was a great success with so much amazing feedback on how useful the service was. Juno is now relaunching an updated version of this and I am so excited to be a part of it and watch it grow."

Here’s what Juno has to say: “At Juno, our mission is to provide the very best specialist health advice to help support parents and parents-to-be. We're really excited to be partnering with Mumsnet and offering this expert at source via the brilliant Hannah Harvey. As a super experienced midwife, mum and entrepreneur we think she's the perfect personification of what Juno stands for. This is not one to be missed!.”

So whatever questions you might have about pregnancy or your newborn, if you'd like some advice please post your questions on this thread for Hannah to answer. Hannah will be back on the 1st of April from midday to answer your questions.

Everyone who shares a question on the thread below will be entered into a prize draw where one lucky Mumsnet user will win a £200 voucher for a store of their choice.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

When I had my first baby at 36 weeks it took a week for my milk to come through. In between that time my baby lost a lot of weight even though she was latching ok and was checked by midwives before I left the hospital.

In the end I did have to go back in because of baby's jaundice.

But I wanted to ask should I have fed baby formula? Am pregnant again so wanted to see what I could do differently next time.

Thanks!

I had pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain from month 4 until delivery for DS1 and 2, and this was very debilitating - especially at night - are there any exercises or sleeping positions you would recommend TTC number 3 at the moment. Thank you

I was totally debilitated with hyperemesis gravidarum, and required admittance to hospital to be put on a drip due to loss of fluids - they said this would not affect the baby, but I feel a little better now, and can cope with the sickness, can this affect the very early and important development of a baby ? Other than nibbling on dry biscuits and drinking little and often I can't find anything which can help.

Does having had a PPH increase the chance of having it with a future birth? Is there anything I could do do reduce the risk?

I'm currently 17 weeks, with my 3rd pregnancy.
1st resulted in induction & EMCS at 42 weeks due to failure to progress (4cm) and foetal distress.
2nd was a twin pregnancy that sadly resulted in a loss at 22 weeks (miscarriage induced) but I know I at least got to 5cm.
This time I'm reluctant to go overdue but also reluctant to just opt for an ELCS as my recovery was awful after EMCS and I'll have a toddler to watch this time.
I'd quite like a natural birth completely dissimilar to my previous two but also appreciate that there is little guarantee.
What are your thoughts on VBAC in this scenario or will it be better all around to opt of ELCS and get appropriate plans for help put in place for recovering.x

I’m losing weight to help me become pregnant again for my second child. How much weight gain is ok for someone who already has a BMI of 27/28?

What is the safest sleeping position when in the third trimester ? My baby is breach at the moment and I feel that sleeping propped up is the most comfortable for me, but have heard that side or back sleeping is preferred ?

How is pregnancy and newborn appointments etc different with the pandemic?

I am 8 weeks pregnant with our first child after a MC in January. I went for an early scan at the EPU and they mentioned I have a fibroid. Is this anything to worry about and could this be why I MC in Jan? Thank you

I had a cesarean birth with my first, mainly due to the baby being breach and me being in labour for 50 hours, and baby was in distress.
Does the scar heal enough for your body to go through a subsequent pregnancy (2 1/2 years post partum).

Why frequent ctg monitoring is still not routinely offered for all pregnant women?

I’m a very slim build, and I’ve heard that women with narrower hips usually have to have a Caesarian. Is this true or a myth?

I had problems with low milk supply with my first baby. With my second, should I start pumping as soon as he's born to help stimulate more milk ?

Hello, hope you can help me.
I am 17 weeks pregnant and couldn't be more thrilled. At 6 weeks I had a extremely heavy bleed which I found out was due to a hematoma. On my 12 week scan they told me the hematoma is still there which has been constantly worry. I have been on furlough since last November , now I have a return to work date by that point I will be 20 weeks pregnant. My scan isn't until the following week. I work in retail for a living which I am stood up on my feet all day. What do you advice I do? I have no idea if my hematoma is still there after a couple of weeks and I'm worried about returning to work incase I have another big bleed.
Thank you for your help x

My baby is almost 3 weeks old and I’m still bleeding. How long does it last for? Also how long does it take for stitches to dissolve? I can still feel them.

I've been trying to track my BBT and was doing well for the first 2 weeks of taking my temperature within the same 15min window. However, the last week I've been waking up 2-3hours before my usual wake up time and don't have enough time to sleep for another 3hours uninterrupted as the instructions on my thermometer say I should. I'm getting quite frustrated as I'm usually a very regular sleeper and normally sleep 8+hours a night. Why is it so important that BBT is taken right after waking up?

Hi,
I'm currently 18 weeks pregnant with my first baby.
I need to work on my pelvic floor as I've already had some slight leakage when sneezing but my compliance with doing pelvic floor exercises is crap. I have the Squeezy app but always ignore the reminders or hate doing them.

In the past I used pelvic floor weights, after finding I leaked a bit when sneezing or jumping, and got on really well with them. I put the weights in every morning while I was in the shower and found my pelvic floor got much stronger and I could do things like jumping on a trampoline with no concerns.

The pelvic floor weights I have say not to use while pregnant. I've looked at similar products but it's hard to find out if they're safe in pregnancy or not.
I don't get why it wouldn't be safe to put pelvic floor weights in, when apparently sex or using a vibrator is safe during and I feel like a penis would be jabbing around a lot more?
But obviously don't want to use them if there is a risk to the baby!

I've just found out I'm pregnant and due my second covid jab on friday. I am a student nurse so work in hospital. My GP said it's my choice and wasn't overly helpful! Has anyone had the jab whilst pregnant? I'm so unsure on what to do

Is it safe to have the covid vaccine when we’re trying to conceive? For both DH and myself?

I had IVF with DS1 and 2, and TTC number 3, I had a great deal of hormones and am worried about the long term effects of this on my body - are there any physical symptoms I can look out for - I am using an ovulation kit and know I am ovulating - but am unsure on the quality of the eggs (age 35) would the IVF lessened my future chances (we do not qualify for further cycles and I have no embryos remaining.

I know the current nhs dietary advice for pregnant women is online but compared to other countries across the world, there's so much variety! What's the evidence for avoiding soft cheeses for example? It's different in Europe and that makes me doubt our guidelines a little.

Hi :) I am currently 10 weeks pregnant from IVF. I've been having some nausea in the evenings since 6 weeks but nothing too bad. I had a scan at 7 weeks 3 days and all was good with a heartbeat, but I am worried because since the end of 9 weeks until today I've been having much more severe nausea and was even sick for the first time last night. Is it normal for sickness to get worse this far along the first trimester?

Hi everyone. Thanks for all of your questions. We're no longer taking anymore questions and we have selected a lucky prize winner for this prize draw. The winner is @MissingTheMoonlight - congratulations!

Hannah Harvey will be online on the 1st of April to answer all of your questions

Hello everyone, thanks for all of your questions!

@niceandsimple

My DS is now 3 months, but after he was born, he lost 10.7% of his birth weight so I had midwives come to check him on day 5, 6, 8, 10 and 12, at which point he had regained his birth weight. I also saw a doctor who separated his tongue tie (it was a severe tongue tie). The doctor and one of the midwives was unconcerned, but the other 2 midwives were concerned enough to talk about having to go back into hospital. I know there is always going to be an element of personal judgement for any potential problem, but how could it be so different? Also, he was a big baby - 4.47kg - does this make a difference to the weight loss?

Hi @niceandsimple, thank you for your message. When babies lose over 10% of their birth weight, as midwives we follow local guidelines and policies that are put in place to make sure the baby is gaining enough weight after birth. It may be that their local guideline was that if a baby loses more than 10% of their birthweight that they should be readmitted to hospital - which is why two of the midwives may have mentioned this to you. From your message, it sounds like your babies tongue tie was corrected and he then got back to birth weight on day 12 which is brilliant news. I think the fact that the Doctor didn’t seem concerned, and your baby recovered well from his initial weight loss is why you weren’t readmitted and the midwives who explained that he may have to be were advising what may need to happen if he were to lose a little more weight. It is difficult because there is a level of making your own professional decisions associated with being a healthcare professional, which is why sometimes you are given differing levels of advice from different midwives and Doctors. Sometimes bigger babies can lose more initially, but will tend to level out and follow a percentile on their chart as they get used to feeding.