Pregnancy care

The first visit is called the booking visit – sometimes booking is spread over two visits as we cover a lot of ground. I ask questions about many aspects of your life in order to begin recording our journey together in a set of personal notes. The questions relate to your medical and pregnancy history, but also include psychological, emotional and social aspects of your life. You receive a copy of these notes when you are discharged from midwifery care and they provide a detailed record of your pregnancy. The notes include birth and the postnatal period if you book the full package.

If you would normally be entitled to NHS midwifery care, you may also have a booking visit with the NHS community midwife so that your details are recorded onto the NHS computer system and any NHS scans and blood tests are arranged. If you aren’t in the NHS system for any reason, or don’t wish to be, I can arrange for blood tests to be carried out on a private basis (at additional cost) and you can have any scans you wish to have carried out privately. The booking visit is made from 8 weeks of pregnancy and can be done at any time up until 36 weeks of pregnancy. I have reluctantly decided not to book clients after 36 weeks of pregnancy as the basis of my care is to provide one-to-one care throughout the pregnancy, birth and postnatal continuum.

Following the booking visit I make antenatal visits according to the following schedule, which is open to adaptation according to your needs and wishes: Booking for midwifery care between 8-12 weeks, then visits at 16, 20, 24, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36 then weekly until baby is born.

Each visit is in your own home at your convenience Monday-Friday daytimes or evenings and takes between one and two hours. You can have anyone present that you wish – your partner and other children and family members and/or pets are more than welcome. I offer antenatal checks which monitor your wellbeing and health and the growth of the baby. I offer blood pressure monitoring, urinalysis (checking urine for protein and glucose among other things), measurement of the growth of the uterus and a check on baby’s movements and position. Family members are encouraged to join in, and everyone loves hearing the baby’s heartbeat using the fetoscope (see picture below). All checks are offered rather than imposed and I am happy to support you if you prefer to avoid screening such as scans or measurements. We can discuss the pros and cons of all the offered screening tests and I’ll support your decisions.

Modern mainstream antenatal care seems to be about trying to find problems and immediately jumping to extreme medical solutions. However, the traditional midwifery that I practice seeks to keep you in good health and avoid the problems arising in the first place. If minor issues arise, why not try to address these with diet or other approaches to see if we can sort them out before they become a real problem? As a lay herbalist and homeopath of many years standing I can help you find simple nutritional, herbal, homeopathic or other strategies to help keep you fit and well during pregnancy. I also have lots of contacts in my local networks so I can get recommendations if an approach such as acupuncture, osteopathy or chiropractic might help.

I believe we all need community and I help to run the Nottingham Home Birth Group which meets 10-12.30 on the third Friday of every month at the Homemade Cafe, Forest Recreation Ground, Nottingham. This is for anyone planning a home birth whether you are with the NHS or independent or planning a freebirth so why not come along and meet up with other like-minded families?

Pregnancy care

Pregnancy or antenatal care is included in the full independent midwifery package with no additional fees. If you wish to book just antenatal care without birth attendance, the full fee for the pregnancy only package is £2000 plus travel expenses at 30p per mile after the first 20 miles of a round trip. This fee is for approximately 10-12 antenatal visits and includes all birth preparation plus availability for telephone calls and messages throughout the antenatal period between 8am-8pm every day. I’m available to be contacted in any way that suits the client including phone, text, email, WhatsApp and Facebook messenger. The fee for antenatal care is usually split into three payments as follows: Deposit at booking £1000, followed by a further payments of £500 at 20 and 30 weeks gestation. (If you book the full IM package then all antenatal care is included at no extra cost.) I can give advice on when to call the midwives if you’re booked for a home birth, but if you don’t book for birth care then I won’t be able to provide any support in labour, including telephone or message (virtual) support.