What happens at an Antenatal appointment?

What happens at a Sage Femme Antenatal Appointment

In London there are many maternity hospitals that you can book for your care. However the
experience you have for routine antenatal care will be the same. Usually impersonal and often frustrating. What can you expect from an antenatal appointment with Sage Femme?
Instead of waiting for some time in a busy antenatal clinic for an often hurried fifteen or twenty minutes with a midwife you have never met before, we offer a very different experience.
Your midwife who you will already know will come and see you at home at an agreed time. Our visits can be as early as 8am to allow more convenience around a working day.

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The hour long appointment will include the physical assessments that you can expect from an NHS appointment but time will be taken to explain the rationale for the tests and what the significance of the findings will be on you, your baby and your ongoing pregnancy care. We will help you work out the sensible course of action necessary if any of our findings are outside of the normal range. For example if we detect signs of a urinary tract infection we will encourage you to have a sample tested in a laboratory and to see your GP if antibiotics are shown to be necessary.

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We also assess the babies growth and position and can listen in to the baby’s heartbeat with our handheld doppler. Not only will you hear your baby but you can record it and share with other family members. If there are any urgent concerns, we will explain things to you and liaise with your booked hospital so that you get the necessary follow up. This could be a period of monitoring of your baby’s heartbeat or a growth scan for example.

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Once you have access to any blood results these can be shared with us for our review. Sometimes we then recommend a change in your diet or supplements or a repeat blood test.

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All of this will not take up much of your appointment, this allows plenty of time for us to discuss various topics that will prepare you for what to expect in labour and in the early weeks of caring for your baby. This one to one antenatal education can be alongside classes that you attend with other expectant couples in your area but it allows you the opportunity to relate topics to your personal experience of pregnancy, without any feeling of judgement when your choices don’t align with someone else’s. Our job is not to judge but to help you come to decisions that keep you and your baby safe, giving you a birth experience that you feel happy with. We will explain the various choices that you can make about your care and answer any questions. It may be helping you to put together
a birth plan or explaining your choices for pain relief or discussing hypnobirthing?

The point is, this antenatal appointment will be personal to you and you don’t have to be inhibited by a lack of privacy. When the appointment is over you won’t need to worry about the question that you forgot to ask because your Sage Femme midwife is only ever a message away.

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