Consultation appointment

I had mine recently actually (at 27 weeks) but it was at the hospital where I will be giving birth as that’s where I see the community midwife too. My appointment was really helpful and informative and was really happy with the outcome. I went in with some specific questions though that I wanted to cover across the different birth options and the consultant was really good at providing me with information and explaining everything. He was even drawing things for me to understand better. I would definitely ask for another appointment if you feel that it didn’t deliver to your expectations.

@Alexandra I think I expected more of a birth plan chat etc but it was literally a midwife appointment 🙈

I have been seeing my consultant from 6 weeks, and only seen a midwife at 12 and 25 weeks. The rest were all with my consultant. I personally have found the consultants much nice towards me than midwives, and enjoy the appointments a lot more. Usually I'm not in there for more than 10 mins, rather quick but I'm very content and reassured. I haven't had any real issues yet, but if I did I know they would extremely helpful! Mine are also not at the hospitals I am giving birth at.

In my last pregnancy I felt like they were pointless up until the end of my pregnancy (36 weeks onwards - gave birth at 38 weeks) at which point it was useful in terms of discussing options for birth as I was diagnosed with GD and my blood pressure was up and down as well as protein in my urine. So in terms of planning best course of action at that point it was useful. I had been seeing them from around 20 weeks though as my baby was measuring on the larger side but I wasn’t actually diagnosed with GD until 32 weeks! This time I have been put under consultant care straight away due to GD and had an appointment at 14 weeks where we basically just agreed I wouldn’t see them unless it was really required based on test results or concerns on my growth scans. I didn’t see any reason to repeat basically the same appointment as with my midwife every 4 weeks 😅

Can I ask what they did ? Xxx

It’s hard to say without knowing the reasons that you’re under a consultant but At 30 weeks there’s not really much to go through if the midwife has already been following an appropriate management plan. It tends to be further along that the consultants monitor for complications. It’s generally still the midwife that does birth plan etc

I would push them on having the conversation you want to have. Or at the very minimum provide you with timeline of when this might happen. I was 27 weeks when I had my birthing plan meeting (at my request) and were very accommodating and supportive.

@EJ they wanted a wee sample, blood pressure, blow in a machine, asked if I was feeling ok and if I knew to go MAU. That’s basically it x

@Morgan they told me I had protein in my wee, got to wait for the results, they’ve rebooked me in for a months time. I will see if that appointment is any more useful. X

@Ceri-Ann I lost 1lr of blood with my last pregnancy so classing me as high risk for this one. X

Just so you don’t worry too much - protein in the urine can be caused by a lot of things and doesn’t necessarily mean preeclampsia. My hospital were very good and I had my urine and blood pressure checked twice a week from about 34/35 weeks - whilst my blood pressure was up and down and I had on and off protein in my urine in that time they were very reassuring that it wasn’t yet bad enough to indicate preeclampsia and that if it did develop I was being checked often enough to catch it early. It is better to be checked and it be nothing than leave it and it be something. But saying that this was all done on maternity day unit not by the consultant!

@Morgan my blood pressure was fine, I think I’ve got to go the midwife once a week now to have them both checked.