Pregnancy

LegacyUser

Hi All.

Myself and my partner have found out we're having a baby.

She is about 5-6 weeks along. We're both very excited and hope everything goes well.

Rang Hollow Street to book in for the initial blood tests and blood pressure test - a check over if you will and they gave us a date of September 28th which is 6 weeks away where she will be 12 weeks gone.

In the same conversation we asked is this the 12 week scan also. No. We have to ring another department for that.

So we rang the relevant department for getting our initial scan (one which i'm led to believe is very important) and we were given a date of October 30th, where she will be 17 weeks gone at this stage.

Surely checks, scans, advice to the first time mother should be given well before then.

Any help or advice?

I'm going anonymous as i'm a regular user of boards.ie and I don't wish to spill our good news just yet.

Thanks

Moonbeam

Holles St.

Are you going public or private or semi private?

Normally 1st appointment is at 12-16 weeks and they do bloods and you have your 1st consultant appointment.
If you are going public prepare to spend hours there but to spend 30 seconds with the consultant.
Noramlly you ring the foetal assessment unit to schedule your anomaly scan which is around 20 -24 weeks.
I have never head of anyone getting to schedule a 12 week one witht heir initial appointment,normally the consultant just gives you a quick one at your appointment.


Congrats:)

Squiggler

Congratulations!

Is Holles St the closest maternity hospital for you? The three maternities have different policies on dating scans etc. The Coombe provides a routine dating scan at 12 weeks - as Moonbeam said, Holles St does not, it only provides the anomaly scan. I think the Rotunda have the same policy as the Coombe.

Hannibal Smith

With Holles street you normally get one full on proper scan, that's the anomaly one at 20 weeks.

But when you go for your first appointment there should be a little scanning machine in the room and they use that to show you the heartbeat etc...they can also do a few measurements to give a stab at dates or at least compare with your dates. That should be at your 12 week appointment.

They do regularly change the way things are done so maybe its different this year, but unless things have changed drastically in a year, whether you go public, semi private or private, on your first doctors appointment they have easy access to those monitors and they rarely let you leave without showing you the baby.

dublinlady

Yeah in holles st our first official scan was 21 weeks, but at every appt I had a mini scan and saw the baby!! Was great! I was semi private!

Advise from the hosp for first time mothers... Can't say I ever got any until they were showing how to breastfeed her after she was born!
I did a one day private prenatal class as was totally clueless! Think they do them for free over a course of a few weeks of evening classes in holles st but I was working when they were on!

Did find them very good after she was born... Hehe! They allow ya to phone the ward 24/7 for 5-6 weeks after birth with any queries! I only did it once, but was nice to know it was there if I couldn't contact the public health nurse etc!

Congrats!!! Very exciting time!!

Hannibal Smith

I think, by law, you're allowed time off for the ante natal classes DL? that's how I got to them. I was working full time, but git a couple of hours off for them.

If i was doing the first time all over again, I'd research ante natal classes and do private/independent ones. I would have liked more training on how and when to breathe etc