Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Pregnancy in England

Yesterday I had my first appointment with a midwife. Must say things certainly work differently here. First of all Midwives are nurses with experience that then do 18 mos. more of Midwifery training, while Midwives at home are not trained nurses. They seem to handle all normal pregnancy and births, and if needed you are referred to a Registrar (GP) or a Consultant (Obstetrician). I will be apparently seeing a Consultant soon who will determine the path of my care.

My first appointment consisted of a visit at home by the Midwife who did all the normal things (urine testing, blood samples, Baby's heartbeat, height of fundus) but all in my living room. Miah sat beside me on the couch as she measured my belly and listened to the heart beat. Kind of neat (too bad Lochlan was sleeping).

Something else different is that during your entire pregnancy there is a book containing all your medical details that you MUST carry with you at all times. This is (from what I understand)so if you were to have a car accident (for example)they would have all pertinent details immediately. Kind of neat...kind of a pain in the tush.

Anyway, baby is healthy and everything ok so far. Kids and I went for a walk to the Surgery (doctor's office) to pick something up and to the park today. Mark is at work, the weather is nice (20°and sunny) but extrememly windy.

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