Your pregnancy and antenatal care

Are you in early pregnancy or thinking about having a baby? This page will provide you with useful information regarding how to get in contact with a midwife, and pre-pregnancy or early pregnancy information.

When you find out you are pregnant it is an exciting and life changing time. The maternity team at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust are committed to helping all women and their families to have a happy and healthy pregnancy and a safe birth of their baby.

Our dedicated staff work throughout Buckinghamshire offering a range of services from both hospital and community settings.

We aim to: 

• work in partnership with you and your family throughout your pregnancy, birth and afterwards, offering all of the services you will need
• support all women to make decisions about what they want and need from their maternity care
• provide you with a small team of midwives who will care for you during your pregnancy and beyond
• offer you a choice of where to give birth. This may depend on yours and your baby’s wellbeing. Your midwife will discuss this with you at you first appointment. Further information can be found on the ’Your birth choices’ section of this website

Booking your maternity care with us

3 different options are available:

1. If you live within Buckinghamshire you can contact your community midwife directly, either via your GP surgery or by calling one of the community midwives offices:
   Aylesbury community midwives: 01296 316120
   Wycombe community midwives: 01494 425172
2. If you do not live within Buckinghamshire and you wish to have your baby with us, please call our antenatal clinic team on 01296 316227 to arrange an appointment.  
3. GP referral: If you prefer, you can see your GP, who can make a referral

Your antenatal appointments may be held in either your GP surgery, a Children’s Centre, the Wycombe Birth Centre, or one of our antenatal clinics in Amersham, Stoke Mandeville or Wycombe Hospital. This will be dependent on where you live and if you are seeing your community midwife or one of the doctors in our obstetric teams. 

Before your first booking appointment with the midwife

Your first appointment with the midwife is known as the ‘booking’ appointment. This is where the midwife completes your maternity notes and provides pregnancy advice and discusses your preferences for your pregnancy and birth. The following information will be discussed with you, and you should try to read the leaflets/websites below before your booking appointment.

Screening tests for you and your baby 

Vitamin D in pregnancy, breastfeeding and children under 5 years

Birth place decisions 

Your birth choices 

Why do you need folic acid in pregnancy?

Which foods to avoid in pregnancy?

NHS Start4Life website

Routine antenatal care

Your first pregnancy appointment (booking appointment)

At your first pregnancy appointment, which is also known as your ‘booking’ appointment, the midwife will ask you about your pregnancy, medical and social history. The midwife will also discuss with you the type of care available to you, which is dependent on the history you give.

For women who are likely to have an uncomplicated pregnancy, it is recommended that your care be only with the midwife (Midwifery Led Care). If you are at higher risk of complications, your care throughout pregnancy and birth will be shared between the midwife and an obstetric team within the hospital (Consultant Led Care)

This first appointment is a good opportunity for you to ask any questions and normally takes about an hour. Anything you say to the midwife will be discussed in confidence. 

Further appointments

After your first ‘booking’ visit, you will be asked to make future antenatal appointments. If for any reason you cannot make an appointment or want to change the time, it is very important that you telephone your GP surgery or community midwife, or the antenatal clinic where the appointment is. The Wycombe antenatal clinic number is 01494 425569 and Stoke Mandeville antenatal clinic is 01296 316140. 

Schedule of care

When a pregnancy is uncomplicated we will see you at the following times: 

Weeks of Pregnancy	First Baby / Subsequent Baby	What to Expect at each appointment	Who you will see
Before 8 weeks	All women	Referral to our Maternity Service, either by: Self-referral GP referral	GP or midwife
6-10 weeks	All women	‘Booking appointment’ with a midwife	Midwife
11-14 weeks	All women	‘Dating scan’ or combined screening for Down’s Syndrome, Edward’s and Patau’s.	Scanning/Phlebotomist at Stoke Mandeville or Wycombe Hospital
16 weeks	All women	Blood pressure, urine, wellbeing of mum and baby. Offer and organise ‘Quadruple test’ if missed combined screening.	Midwife
18 - 21 weeks	All women	Detailed scan of baby, looking at: head, face, body, limbs and internal organs. (‘Anomaly scan’)	Scanning at Stoke Mandeville or Wycombe Hospital
25 weeks	First time mothers	Blood pressure, urine, wellbeing of mum and baby	Midwife
28 weeks	All women	As 25 weeks. Repeat blood test for anaemia and antibodies*	Midwife
31 weeks	First time mothers	As 25 weeks	Midwife
34 & 36 weeks	All women	As 25 weeks plus discuss labour, birth and postnatal care. Final decision about where your baby will be born	Midwife
38 weeks	All women	As 25 weeks	Midwife
40 weeks	First time mothers	As 25 weeks plus offer membrane sweep	Midwife
41 weeks	All women	As 25 weeks plus offer membrane sweep and arrange induction of labour for overdue babies	Midwife