First midwife appointment?

[h3l3n]

I know this questions has probably been asked 100s of times but I dont want to get my hopes up and then still have to wait (what seems like and ages) for another appointment.

I have a midwife appointment on the 5th October (in 22 days! not that I am counting!!) this will be my first and I will be, from my LMP, 13 weeks 2 days pregnant.

Will I have a scan with the midwife or do i need to go to the maternity hospital for that?

I booked the appointment when I was 5 weeks 5 days and it seems ages that I have been waiting and now am so excited to see baby but am not wanting to get too excited in case I have to wait even longer.

[Rachelhaley]

In my area, we have our booking in appointment with a midwife at our local doctors surgery at 8 weeks pregnant. She confirms dates etc and books ur scan with the local hospital then. The first scan is at 12 weeks. It maybe different depending where you live and if you see midwife at the hospital..

[h3l3n in reply to Rachelhaley]

:0( so i will probably have to wait until 20 weeks to get the first scan in that case then.

Thanks for the response.

[Rachelhaley]

You shouldnt have to wait that long, they will need to check everything is well with the baby. Its normal practise in the uk to have a 12 week scan. Everyone I know has had one. Can you not phone your doctors to check?? They can refer you if you cant get into see your midwife sooner.. Stand your ground, this is the health of you and your baby, if your worried phone the dr. Good luck..

[KatieKrinklebum]

I agree with Rachel. I left it a bit last minute to see my doctor, and he told me to go for a scan "next week at the latest", and after ringing round several scanning centers I rang him and said I wasn't having any luck getting an appointment so soon, and asked him if it really had to be that week, and he said yes. This was 13 weeks. It's because the indicators of certain defects become invisible after about 14 weeks. And to back Rachel up on this, yes, be firm with all the proffesionals involved. Don't worry about being bossy - mums have to be bossy! They're used to it. If the patient doesn't give them a bit of orientation, they often get a bit lost.

[nachorattie]

I literally counted the days to my first midwife appointment (and almost the hours too!). I too had my first booking appointments at 8 weeks, as standard practice in my area. Unfortunately it's different all over the uk, and although 12 week scans are widely available in most hospitals, some do not offer your first scan until your Anomaly scan at roughly 20 weeks (unless you request a Nuchal Translucency scan/combined screening - for the detection of Down Syndrome - which must be done before 13 weeks plus 6 days).

It might be worth getting in contact with your doctor, just to talk about your options.