Congratulations! Pregnancy is an exciting and special time. When you have found out you are pregnant, call your GP surgery and you will be allocated a named midwife who will be based within your GP surgery. Your midwife will aim to deliver the majority of your antenatal care, although she works as part of a team, all with the same ethos, and you may be seen by any member of the community midwifery team.
Your first meeting with your midwife is known as your booking visit and usually takes place around 8 weeks pregnant. During this appointment, you get the opportunity to meet each other, to discuss your individual needs and wishes, and to jointly plan your midwifery care. Some women will have the midwife as the lead professional supporting you in your care - this is known as midwifery led care. Other women will have a consultant supporting and this is known as consultant led care (this may be because you have pre-existing medical or pregnancy conditions.) If you choose the consultant led pathway, we would still encourage you to have regular visits with your named midwife and team.
You will have a set of hand held notes. All your pregnancy information will be recorded here and we encourage you to bring them to all appointments and keep them close and easily accessible. They are full of public health information, personal information, links for further advice, and inform you of the suggested pattern of care (how many visits are recommended) based on your individual circumstances.
We encourage you to be as healthy and active as you can during the pregnancy. We can provide information about healthy eating, exercise, smoking cessation, preparing for birth and breast feeding, alcohol intake and maternity leave.
At around 12-14 weeks of pregnancy you will be offered a dating scan and antenatal screening tests. Please view this video to tell you more about the screening tests available.
https://vimeo.com/259001620
At around 20 weeks you will be offered an anomaly scan. Our scans are performed by midwives, doctors and the radiology team. Depending on your individual circumstances, you may be offered further scans throughout the pregnancy.
As the birth approaches we encourage you to think about where you would like to have your baby, and to consider the options available to you. You can further prepare for birth by joining one of our free antenatal classes, run by midwives and an opportunity to meet other mothers-to-be, whilst getting physically and emotionally prepared for birth.