Your Week by Week Guide to Pregnancy care and appointments

The path from early pregnancy to birth can be very straight forward or highly complex. Your team is here to support you through your pregnancy journey no matter what twists and turns it takes to help you achieve the positive birth that’s right for you and your baby.

Midwives-

Our Midwives are highly experienced and care for you and your baby in a holistic manner encompassing your physical, mentally and emotional health.

• Providing clinical care to assess you and your baby’s wellbeing.
• Provide you with evidenced based information to underpin your decisions along your pregnancy journey.
• Here to support you emotionally and to answer all of your questions.

Consultants

• Provide fetal medicine scans
• Consult and advise on complex pregnancy
• Arrange elective Caesarian and Induction of Labour

Sonographers

• Provide specialist obstetric scans for screening, anatomy, growth and 4D images.

This week-by-week guide gives you an idea of what to expect at each consultation, there are some aspects which are essential for each visit and the discussions can be tailored to your needs.

*Booking Appointment. This is often the first visit you will have within the NHS. Even if you are choosing to have your baby at The Portland every pregnant woman needs to be booked at a local NHS hospital for 24 hour emergency access if required. The booking visit involves taking a comprehensive history about you – covering health, previous surgery, any medical conditions as well as family history. We also calculate you BMI which helps us assess who is most suitable to manage your care: midwives or doctors. You will have comprehensive blood tests to assess your iron count, blood group, rhesus antibodies and HIV status etc.

*Antenatal Check ups. These are an essential part of your pregnancy care and are integral no matter how many scans you choose to have. Your midwife will monitor Blood pressure, Maternal Pulse, Oxygen saturation, carbon monoxide levels, Urinalysis, Abdominal palpation and measurement for size and position of baby, Fetal heart auscultation using a Doppler and discuss baby’s movements with you.

*Parent Education. This will occur as and when you require, as questions and ailments arise. At different stages we will discuss topics such as birth preferences, delayed cord clamping, water birth, home birth, skin to skin, Pain relief, placenta encapsulation and Aromatherapy for use in labour.

*Hypnobirth/Birth Preparation classes. If you and your birth partners would prefer more in-depth information in the form of classes these can be arranged through our Midwives. Hypnobirth has been found to be the best birth preparation for Mums aiming for normal deliveries. It increases your chance of having a Vaginal delivery from 65% to 85%. Statistics also show that women who use Hypnobirth require less intervention and less pain relief. We offer group classes in Hypnobirth as well as one to one sessions of Hypnobirth and Parent Education at your home for flexibility.