First doctor's appointment when pregnant?

I found the receptionists at my office to be out of control with how they regulated the midwife appointments.  They were so strict and wouldn't allow things, but when I would talk to the midwife, she usually had no problem with it.  Maybe leave a message for your midwife to ring you about some worries you have and then explain the situation to her.  She may be able to work around things a bit with you.  My midwife was great and even came to my home multiple times to save me the trouble when I was heavily pregnant.  Yours may not be able to do that, but she could at least advice you on the transfer.

I agree with Cadenza.  Personally speaking I would just speak with your Midwife regarding any bookings to do with her or your pregnancy.  My surgery has community Midwives from 2 separate hospitals and apart from having the receptionists at the surgery put my name down for the midwife associated with the hospital I chose all my bookings have gone through my Midwife for this pregnancy and my last.  That includes: scans, Obstetrician appointments (at the hospital) and seeing my midwife at the surgery (or for home visits).  In your notes you should have a contact number for your Midwife if not the unit your Midwife works out of in order to get a hold of him or her.  Good luck!

Did you guys actually have a specific midwife assigned to you throughout your pregnancy?

I have only had my booking in appointment, but from what the midwife I saw was saying, it seemed it would be unlikely I'd see the same midwife from appointment to appointment.

I was given the number for my team of midwives, though. Perhaps I will try calling that and seeing if they can do the necessary work to switch my hospital booking over the phone.

I mainly had the same midwife the way through; she was the one assigned to the surgery that myself and my husband go to.  We sometimes saw other midwives there if say, our normal one was on vacation or whatever, but through the pregnancy, it was mainly the one.  It's been a bit difference since having the child though, if only because my surgery is in one catchment area, and my home is in another; it's been easier for the midwife team out of the hospital to attend me for the postnatal home visits than the ones out of the other side of my in-law's village where our surgery is!

I had the same midwife (the one who was assigned to my GP's surgery).  I always saw her unless she was on holiday.  It's anyone's guess who you'll get in hospital though.  I was really okay with that by the time birth came.  I just wanted my little one to be born!  I was quite happy with my midwife.  When I compared notes with my pregnant sisters in the USA, I really had about the same number of visits as they did.

For both pregnancies I've been assigned a specific community midwife associated with my hospital of choice, although I have been seen by other midwives when my midwife has been ill or on holiday but that midwife was from the same hospital...  But then again I live slightly more rural.  Usually you'll only see your community midwife at birth if you're doing a home birth, in hospital it's anyone's guess!  But it generally wouldn't be a community midwife as they don't usually attend in hospital...

Katylux are you being seen at a local surgery or are you being seen for all appointments in hospital?  As my understanding is in hospital it is a bit harder to be pinned down to one midwife as they are serving a larger contingent than say a community midwife would unfortunately.  Our hospital is like this for the Obstetric (clinic) appointments:  I'm assigned to one Dr, but have seen other doctors aside from him throughout pregnancy...  So, even if you are being seen by other Midwives they should assign you to the care of one particular midwife just to give you a point of reference.  You may want to consider asking the team of midwives whom you're assigned to if you do call them.   

I believe, and I could be wrong on this but in your first pregnancy you should be seen about 10 times (obviously more if you're also seeing an OBs or you have any complications) and then for subsequent pregnancies you should be seen about 7 times...

Interesting...

Teletabby, I am being seen by my local surgery. I am not high risk or anything. So far I have been to my booking in appointment with a midwife at my surgery, and then a scan at the hospital. My next appointment will be at my surgery again with someone from the same 'midwife team' at about 19 weeks, and then I have my 20 week scan at the hospital again the next week.

I have also heard about 10x for first pregnancy. Though being seen twice by week 20 means I will have 8 appointments during the second half of my pregnancy?

I'm not overly concerned. I do feel like if something was wrong, I could call the midwife team in my trust or the hospital number they gave me, and I'd have access to the help I need. But I did feel like the midwife at my booking in appointment had NO idea what was going on with the system in general (when to book my appointments, changing my hospital booking, scans, etc.) and that is where I feel like my questions are not being answered. I am just trying to make sure I book things as early as possible from now on, and at my next midwife appointment I will really try to ask more system questions.

One thing though, should I be concerned that nothing's been looked at "under my hood," per se, throughout my pregnancy thus far?

Nothings been looked at 'under my hood' either... which i also find strange.

I also find things very disorganised over here! Im told to see my midwife once a month but making the appointments is always up to me.  I also was looking at my pregnancy paperwork the other day and it says i need a quads bloodtest at 16 weeks.... which i wasn't even told about... so i just phoned and booked in with the midwife to do that when im 16 weeks.  Im not sure if she knows she's taking blood that day though because it was just booked through the doctors surgery.

I've also not actually met my assigned midwife because shes either been on holiday or off sick when ive had my appointments which im a bit annoyed about because i would like to establish some sort of rapore with the lady that is delivering my 1st born! Grrr. I just feel like i dont know whats going on!! 

Nothings been looked at 'under my hood' either... which i also find strange.

I find that a relief. I had too many under the hood exams when I was going through treatment. I certainly don't need anymore!

I've also not actually met my assigned midwife because shes either been on holiday or off sick when ive had my appointments which im a bit annoyed about because i would like to establish some sort of rapore with the lady that is delivering my 1st born! Grrr. I just feel like i dont know whats going on!! 

Your local trust may be different than mine but I was told that the chances of having my midwife at the labour was pretty slim. He's the local community midwife and I think the hospital has midwives of their own.

I'm in the US but the only thing that I've had that's been internal has been an ultrasound.  I definitely haven't had any internal exams yet!  I don't think there's anything to 'look at' until later on in the third trimester.

Through my entire pregnancy here in the UK I was never checked 'under the hood'. Although, my case was a bit different as we knew from 33 weeks that the baby was breech and she never turned so it was a planned c-section the entire time.

Yeah... nobody looked 'under the hood' until I was labor, and that was fine by me.  But then, we could tell the baby was in the right position by poking at my belly, and I wasn't having any contractions regularly until I was actually IN labor, so... wasn't a need to.

Thanks ladies! I think since I've never been pregnant before I just dont know whats supposed to be done and I just assumed 'looking under the hood' was normal.. but it's fine by me if no one has a peek! 

Had a bit of a freak out moment when i wrote my last post and DH found me feverously going through my maternity folder saying 'I just dont know what im supposed to be doing' and he calmed me down a bit and we went through everything together. 

Have you joined a birth club at Babycentre?  I found that very helpful to get a feel for what was happening and there were always other mum's who'd done it before and could help me relax.  I also had several girlfriends here who were expecting at the same time and that was a lifesaver.

It's so easy to get freaked out about everything.  I worked with pregnant women professionally in the States, so I knew about every detail of pregnancy and childbirth, but it felt completely different going through it myself.  I think the thing that helps is to build a network of friends and family who you can trust to ask questions that may sound obvious and they won't laugh.  I had one friend I'd call all the time and say "I know the answer, but help me reassure myself by reminding me that ____".  Like I said, I also really appreciated being able to go places like this and Babycentre who could give me answers or just sympathise.

Some of your choices are different here than in the States, but really, in the long run, it isn't really all that different--you hardly get seen in the early stage there either.  There really isn't much they can do other than reassure you (even though that would be nice).  You'll do great, and there are some things I love here--like how my midwife came to my house to check on me at the end and did well baby checks (as well as the health visitor) at home during those early weeks so I didn't have to take my little one to sit next to ill people in a waiting room during those first weeks.  I believe they actually have a higher infant mortality rate in the States--really, overall my care was pretty good.

Sweet. I'd definitely rather they didn't do anything internal unless there was a need, so that's reassuring.

I'm going to look into Babycentre. I've been on Netmums a bit (the hospital/birth centre reviews are awesome), and I spend quite a bit of time on thebump.com, which is really helpful for anything pregnancy related (like freakout questions about something you just ate or for getting an idea of when you'll feel the baby move)...but it's a US site, so obviously no help for UK process or health system related questions.

Chrissy--we're just about the same due date, I think...I'm due early July and am about 14 weeks, right now, too. Congratulations!