What should I expect from my midwife?

[Redshoes]

I wasn't sure where to post this but as you ladies in here will have lots of experience of midwifes while going through your pregnancy's, I thought maybe you could help me

I just wondered what to expect from my midwife? So far, I've seen her and she weighed me and gave me a pregnancy folder with lots of odd looking doctor/hospital things in it, and made a second appointment for me to see her on the 20th November.

Anyway, is that right? How often are you supposed to see your midwife? What about contacting them, should they be available 24/7? I just feel I should have a bond with this lady who's going to see me through my pregnancy and worry we won't have one, am I just worrying for nothing?

Sorry that was a bit long but it's my first pregnancy and I guess I'm just wanting to not appear silly if I ask too much of my midwife

Any advice greatly appreciated
Thankyoux

 

[swan1]

I saw her initially to do my booking, i didnt see the community miswife again until after my 20 week scan, i think at 22 weeks. I had been to the hospital for my 12 and 20 week scans and had seen the midwifes there. i then saw her at 28, 32,36,38 and 40 weeks. Hope this helps

 

[Nicky_Jones]

Under the NHS you are not likely to really have the same midwife all the way through. Maybe my case was unusual but I had 1 midwife to start with, who moved areas, the next midwife I saw was a temping one covering the other midwife until the new one started, then I had the new one and then the midwifes which actually attending my delivery were different again.

 

[Jade89]

They see u every 4 weeks start off with. Yeah I felt like I had to bond with mine and when they dont make the effort back you get a little sneeped, but try to remember the woman deals with loads of pregnant women everyday...I just gave up and went to my appointments, i'm glad I diddn't bond with her, I ended up seing 5 different midwifes by the time i'd had my little girl, the last 2 were brill though. Midwifes are usually available to contact via mobile in their working hours, some switch them off when they go home, but some midwifes give you a home phone number but i don't think this is a common thing. You will have numbers on your pregnancy notes to call if it's out of hours and you need advice.

Midwifes are there to be asked questions if your worried, if people like yourself weren't pregnant, she'd be out of a job lol, don't worry ask as much as you like.

 

[mummykay]

Any questions u have - ASK!! thats what they r there for!

I was swapped over midwife to midwife every mth but each time i asked every q i could think of lol!!

 

[Redshoes]

Thankyou for the advice and stories
I guess I feel less pressure now to bond as it were, and I hope I do have nice midwife/s like some of you have talked about, and I am very lucky in that I have close loved ones who can help support me too, thanks again for the replies

 

[hayley]

The nicest MW i saw was my booking in MW at 12 weeks... she was the friendliest... after her it all went down hill. I saw a different one every appointment. My 2nd was at the 20 weeks scan.. the my community MW every 4 weeks till I got to 37 weeks... I saw her every week then. If i had a problem or worry i would call the hospital and speak to a MW on duty. They where always quite short with me - like they had other things to be doing and i was wasting their time. When you go into labour you'll probably see different MW's again. I thought the same one would see me right through the delivery but i had a long one and ended up seeing about 5... In fact the first MW i saw when i went in to be induced finished her 12 hour shift.. had a day off and then came back on duty... i was still 1cm dilated... Good luck - hope you get a good one!

x