What actually happens at your first midwife appointment?

Team Naked Doula
3 days ago
2 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

In the UK, your booking appointment is usually your first proper in-person thing with the NHS. It happens around 10 weeks. And it's much less medical than people expect. No scans or real tests, it’s just a long conversation about you. If you've gone private, your independent midwife will have their own schedule. Worth checking it lines up with what you actually want.

It's mostly questions. A lot of questions. About your health. Your partner's health (or whoever the biological other parent is). Family history. It can be intense, and it goes on long enough that you'll probably forget half of what you wanted to ask. Tip - go in with your questions written down. Notes app on your phone, scrap of paper, whatever. You will not remember them in the moment. Nobody does. When it's your turn to ask, ask everything. Don't worry about looking like you're being a pain. You're not. They expect it.

They'll talk you through what's coming. Future appointments. The tests and screenings they'll offer you across the pregnancy. Ask what each one is for and why. Because, and this matters, every single thing they offer is a choice. They need your informed consent before any of it goes ahead. "Routine" doesn't mean compulsory.

Worth asking about birth place options. This is a good appointment to start that conversation. Every NHS trust does it slightly differently. Some have midwife-led units inside the hospital. Some have them as separate buildings. Some have both. Some have neither. There's also the labour ward, the antenatal ward, and the postnatal ward ..... all of which might be in different places. Even where you have your scans can be a different building from where you give birth.

Ask all of it. Where you'd be for what. What the options are. What it actually looks like to walk in. Even if you're going private, ask your independent midwife the same, you still want to know what's where. If you're not having a home birth, you'll usually give birth at your local hospital. Your community midwife comes with you or hands over depending on what's been arranged.

Want to think about birth place properly before this appointment? We've got a little something on that here....[Where Should I Give Birth →]