Antenatal appointments

[azurh]

Hello!

i forgot to ask my Midwife how many appointments I will have during my maternity care. I have had my booking appointment my next is at 16 weeks then after that could someone enlighten me as and when ? This is my second baby and I cannot remember or find my appointments for my first child which was 5 years ago! I am medium risk due to complications with the first birth.

And in terms of scans at what stages are they done? I have to attend other appointments so I'm

Trying to work out what Appointments of mine can fall together so I can take time off work to attend them! ( I know my employer must give me reasonable time off but I have so many to go to I would rather take an afternoon off as opposed to run from work !)

[monniemae]

Which hospital are you registered with? Did the midwife not give you a book for your notes? I'm with St thomas and my scan was 12 wks, next is 20.only two. At King's it was 12, 22, 32 with my first.at St thomas I think after 16 weeks I see the midwife at 28wks though she might see me sooner she said...

[SingingWilks]

Congratulations azurh. If you're at Kings the appointments are detailed in your maternity notes which the midwife will have given to you. If you can't find them let me know and I can send you a list (I'm not near my notes at the moment to be able to do so now).

[azurh]

my midwife still has my notes book as they couldn't book me into the system due to their being a server error!!!! I should be getting them tomorrow!

[etta166]

Bear in mind that your appointments may differ because of the risk factors. For example, on my 2nd and 3rd pregnancies I had a scan every 2 weeks from 23 weeks (yes it was a massive pain in the butt), but saw a midwife only at 28wks, 32wks and 36wks before giving birth at 37+, so before the 38, 40 and 41wk appointments.

[buggie]

Your health visitor should also do an antenatal visit in the final trimester - much easier to give appropriate & useful info/get to know you before the baby arrives and the tiredness/stress of being brand new parents that occurs by the new birth visit

[azurh]

No one came to give me my maternity book ( notes). Do I need this for when I have my 12 week scan? The community midwife I met is on annual leave. I called midwives house to speak to a member of the horizon midwife team but no one contacted me :(

[sillywoman]

azurh, is this right?

You've had your booking appointment, the midwife asked to keep your notes until the next appointment so that she could book you into the system.

You will get your notes back at the next midwife appointment.

My understanding of the system is that you don't need your notes for your 12 week saran (just keep the documentation they give you safe until it can be placed in your notes), however you do need to make another appointment to see a midwife, if you don't already have one. The midwife who booked you should have told you when to book that appointment for - usually around 16 weeks. Once you get your notes back you'll be able to see what the schedule of appointments through your pregnancy is.

I would guess that the reason you didn't get a call back yesterday is due to the community midwives being utterly snowed under. I'm sure they'll get back to you when they can, or you could persevere with trying to contact them if you want. When dealing with big systems like the NHS sometimes a bit of perseverance is necessary for non-emergency situations.

[Sonners]

I'm on my second pregnancy and so far my standard appointments with Kings have been:

10 weeks booking appointment

12 weeks nuchal scan

18 weeks midwife appointment

22 weeks anomaly scan

28 weeks midwife

The next midwife appointments are due to be 34, 36, 38 and 40 weeks plus a 36 week scan.

If you are medium risk then you may also have consultants appointment(s). My first was at 28 weeks (to discuss VBAC vs ELCS). I will have another one at 36 weeks. I also had a cervical clinic appointment at 16 weeks due to previous history.

Plus Anti-D injection (28 weeks) if you are a rhesus negative blood group, flu vaccine and whooping cough vaccine (between 28 and 32 weeks). For flu you can get this done at most Boots pharmacies if easier - I popped into one near work with my maternity exemption card and they did it for free there and then. Much easier than trying to get a doctors appointment I found.