When did you refer yourself for pregnancy care, UK?

Phoned at 3/4 weeks and was told to call back at 6 weeks. They made an appointment for week 10 and first scan was week 13

Told my gp immediately because your GP take care of you till you’re 16 weeks anyway & then registered with the midwife team of the hospital trust I want to give birth at 6 weeks because I was busy lol. You can fill it out online now & every trust has their own self ref form on their nhs site and then they make an appt for you auto, it goes onto your nhs app and they send you an appt letter in the post sometimes they call to ask a few questions and offer appt. This is because your first appt will just be a booking appt anyway xx Ps: they like for you make them aware latest w7/8 so it’s gives them enough time to book for w10! Congratulations btw! 🩵🩵🩵

@Olivia i phoned my GP and told me they don't deal with pregnancies and to call the midwife. I'm in Scotland, maybe it's different for England?

I think some areas may be different, but for mine I called my GP at 6 weeks, and they booked me in with the midwife from 8 weeks onwards. Might be best to call your GP and just ask what their protocol is :)

Every trust is different so best to Google in your area or ring your doctors tomorrow the receptionist will best advise you. Our gp has nothing to do with pregnancies. Your first appt with midwife won’t be til 8-10 weeks irregardless. Congratulations! X

@Alessia must be Scotland maybe, but I’ve always known the GP will take care of any issues for a while and midwives won’t deal with it (which sucks) 🥹

It seems Wales, Scotland and England all have different protocols so what I explained was for England just to clear that up! Xx

On my first I phoned the GP who gave me the midwife number, I phoned as soon as I knew so they could get me booked in. On my second they had told me to phoned direct and not bother with the gp. I’m wales though x

I did an online self referral the day after I found out, was probably 4/5 weeks. Had a phone call that day and appointment booked for 9 weeks

@Olivia I'm in England. Called my GP who told me to call the midwife and didn't deal with any of it. Must be area specific.

I contacted my gp surgery immediately which was 5 weeks and the gave me a link to do an online referral and then confirmed my first midwife appointment at 9 weeks. My midwife gets pretty booked up so the sooner you refer then the sooner you can get an appointment without having to be squeezed in

We self refer where we are and they say on the website where you log in to wait for 6 weeks x

@Natalie yea because the midwife does the booking in, but if you have any health concerns, usually it will be dealt with by your gp as normal except if it’s like you think you’re having a miss or something like that till you get to about 16 weeks

@Olivia my local hospital has an early pregnancy unit. They dealt with my miscarriage and supported me with my daughter from 6 weeks.

@Natalie okay so that’s niche for you guys and not very common. Most areas don’t have that. And midwifery & the maternity sector in general is currently struggling massively in the nhs atm. I know this professionally, so for most, the protocol remains same as stated. Sorry about your miscarriage *hugs and kisses*❤️❤️❤️❤️

I did it a week after I found out. As a community midwife I will say the earlier you refer the easier it is to allocate an appointment and rearrange if you can’t make the one we offer To clarify the debate going on above it’s nothing to do with end and/Scotland/wales it’s about the local trusts policies. Some you get referred from the gp but most you now do an online self referral and regardless if you have told them or not the gp will still see you for any concerns. Often the GP will refer you into early pregnancy for pregnancy concerns. Anything they deal with they will generally deal with throughout the whole pregnancy

I waited till 7 weeks but only because I knew I was having scan with my IVF clinic at that point so waited till I was discharged from ivf clinic x

I self referred to my hospital of choice when I found out at 4/5 weeks. I received an email reply the next day with my 8 week booking appointment and 12 week scan.

You don't actually get an appointment until 8-12 weeks so best to get on the list asap.

I found out I was pregnant at 4/5 weeks and was told to call back at 6 weeks then they booked my first midwife appointment at 10 weeks

I called the midwife when I found out (on a monday) and I was 4weeks 3 days they gave me an appointment for the Wednesday At the time of calling them I did not know I was 4weeks 3 days and they booked in an ultrasound for a couple weeks after (October 10th (if i rememember corectly) , which I didn’t end up attending)

My area is self referral so I just filled in the online referral at around 5 weeks and waiting to be contacted.

I was 3 weeks 4 days 😂😂😂 called and they referred me to the midwife service. First appt was at 8 weeks.