Midwifery Care

[Bluelady-sing]

Hi

What was your experience of this? Did the Midwife acknowledge the IVF - Difficult journey you had to make.

[_MrsC]

Hi. My friend is a midwife and we were chatting one day, she said that they wouldn't even necessarily know because you just start with the hospital with your 12 week scan. I don't know if that's the case for everywhere though. x

[WeeMrsH]

With my 1st pregnancy (late miscarriage) I believe there was a section on the midwife forms asking about IVF or at very least a place to explain any unusual circumstances. So they do take account of it, in my experience, and more scans would be given than the standard 12/20/32 weeks.

[Katm123]

Not really, the community midwives at my gp practice didn't really know very much about IVF. They were really preoccupied by the fact I was using progesterone in the beginning, and at my last check the lady said 'I bet we'll see you back here in no time' at which point I knew for sure she didn't get it.

At my 12 week scan the sonographer changed my due date by a weekand and few days based on her measurements. I said that was not right as I knew when she was conceived etc, she said 'No no, all babies measure exactly the same at the same point at this stage of pregnancy so your due date is.... ' it made no difference really apart from driving me a bit dotty at the time, she arrived safe and sound and is now 4 years old xx

[Daisy-Mae]

I felt it didn't make any difference in the number of scans we got and the treatment side of things like that, but I do think the midwives were extra nice to us! We talked about our baby being IVF quite a lot, not sure why but I think it helped them to see why I was quite nervous or emotional or had lots of questions. Every single midwife or doctor we saw was just lovely xx

[miri-p]

I would say they acknowledge it and know about it but I still got the standard treatment any normal healthy pregnant woman gets. At the beginning of the pregnancy I was struggling with the transition to the 'normal' NHS pregnancy care system. When going through IVF you get used to lots of appointments and lots of checks, explanations etc - once you're in the NHS system there are far fewer checks and mostly they say 'it's all fine'. I think you're a bit traumatised after dealing with infertility and need a lot of reassurance that you won't necessarily get. But time definitely helps. I'm now 28 weeks and feel calmer about it and happier with my midwife. Mostly because I calmed down myself and recovered from the IVF . Hope this helps!

[SharlyWarly]

No difference at all in terms of the amount of scans but definitely takes some adjustment if you paid for private IVF treatment to NHS midwifery care. I'm due on Sunday and until I transferred my care to the home birth team I was expecting each midwifery appointment in hospital to take 2/3 hours due to the long waiting times in a hot waiting room.

It was strongly suggested that I see a consultant because of my age (39) and the IVF conception. When I questioned this I was told that women who have IVF are generally more anxious and really want to see a consultant. I'm not anxious and have had a straightforward pregnancy so thought this was a waste of (everyone's) time, plus the conception makes no difference to the baby - a baby is just a baby no matter how it was conceived! It was pushed on me but it was clearly to cover their own backs so I declined - thought it was a waste of my time and NHS money.

If you have had a difficult journey I would mention it to midwives, otherwise I wouldn't bother about it otherwise it makes them worry more than you!

[Missy_22]

I trained as a midwife and we didn't get any information or training on ivf back in 2003. We would see ladies for their booking 7-12 weeks and asked the question about ivf but even back then for myself it didn't mean to much to me. Now I have gone through it twice I really understand and feel bad I didn't think much about it before.

I think all midwives should have a good understanding and full training xxxx

[Sarahmanc]

Even though mine was a natural conception after 2 failed IVFs, they have generally been a bit kinder to me - ask more questions about my mental health, reassure me more. I'm 15 and a half weeks now so I'm feeling less anxious now I'm into the second trimester but they are fully aware that I need more reassurance than other women. I was just really honest with them at the first appointment! All the best for the rest of your pregnancy xx

[emmab178]

A few of us who had bfps stayed in touch and we are all struggling to get the first midwife appointment. One is 11 weeks now and has to wait till week 13 for the first appointment (she won't even get a scAn at that appointment). I will be 10 weeks when I see mine but that's because I pushed for it because I have severe endo and have been having bad cramps. Another is coming up 9 weeks and hasn't had an appointment come through yet.

NICE guidelines say your meant to be seen ideally by ten weeks. Good luck in getting anywhere near that. We've all had private scans in the meantime for peace of mind that everything is progressing as it should. I'm happy to pay for this considering what we've been through to get to this point and the nhs is severely overstretched.

[Nesfin]

I was a bit nervous to transition from private to NHS but I've received excellent care. Having conceived through IVF has made no other difference than they take my due date as a given and most generally feel a bit kinder to me. And quite a few have been knowledgeable about the technical side of IVF. And all my history is accounted for in the midwife notes (IVF, number of cycles, miscarriage details, ET details etc).

I stayed with my private clinic until 10 weeks (after BFP scans at 6, 8 and 10 weeks, and Harmony/NIPT). Prior to that I self referred to the midwife (one can also do this via GP) and had a lovely meeting with the midwife at around 9 weeks (give or take). She offered me the option for an early pregnancy scan at EPAU because of multiple factors (anxious because of symptoms disappearing, age, twins) which I declined since I was going to my clinic in any case. My hospital also recommends private NIPT to those in higher risk group. Hence no special care and private is always an option for that additional reassurance but so far apart from one unfortunate encounter (there always has to be one eh!) I consider myself lucky to be in good hands. Sometimes you have to press for things and I've heard many professionals say that I'm knowledgeable 🙈 but it seems to be again a bit of a post code lottery xoxo

[MonkAK]

Hi there, reading the above comments I assume that it must be different from NHS trust to NHS trust, but I have 'IVF pregnancy' written all over my pregnancy notes and I am consultant-led rather than midwife led due to being IVF, which means that every time I go for a scan I see my consultant too and, when I deliver, a consultant will be overseeing it rather than midwives.

I also get more scans than a 'regular' pregnancy - I will have had 7 by the time I am due, and I think the norm is 3. They will also not let me go over my due date and I am actually being booked in for induction at my next scan. The consultant told me that this is because they can be 100% sure of when I am at full term as they know exactly when I conceived because I am IVF, whereas with a 'normal' pregnancy it is all guess work and that's why they give the window of 12 days, otherwise they would be inducing huge numbers of women before they were really due. I just assumed this was all the norm for IVF pregnancies so to see that it is not is quite eye-opening. I guess I am really lucky to be getting such excellent care.