Consultant or Mid-wife led pregnancy

Here in the UK we have a choice of having a consultant or mid wife led pregnancy process.

I gave birth at Chelsea & Westminster hospital and I had a consultant led pregnancy.

I would strongly suggest a consultant led pregnancy as a first time mom, since this is a journey that you have never experienced before so there are many new symptoms throughout these 9 months.

Firstly there are so many questions that we do not have an answer to, but having access to consultant adds huge benefits. Below I add some of the benefits of having a consultant led pregnancy:

1. Access to the consultant 24/7 (via phone or in person)

2. You can ask any questions during your pregnancy (and believe me there are no stupid questions). For any strange/different symptoms I used to take pictures and send it to my consultant as I did not know what was normal and what was not.

3. Your consultant will be explaining you the pregnancy process in detail. As a first time mom I wanted to know everything about pregnancy, I wanted my scans to be explained to me in great detail and your consultant will be able to provide you with in depth detail of every growth scan.

4. Regular catch ups and growth scans. There are different scans during your pregnancy: normal scans (like ultrasounds) or growth scans. With consultant led package your growth scans will be included during the checkups where with mid-wife led journey you will mostly have ultrasound scans or sometimes no scan at all).

5. Growth scans: during the scans, your consultant will be able to share with you how healthy is your baby, explain you the delivery, assure you that your baby is healthy and most importantly go through delivery stage with you. I have personally only wanted a natural delivery so my consultant explained my the process in great detail. The consultant will not push you for C- section delivery if you do not want one, so I would not opt out for mid-wife led delivery just because you might be thinking that all the consultants will push you for C - section. On the contrary, it is very important to have a consultant for the weeks like 38,39, 40 because it is very important to see and follow the growth of your baby, because personally my consultant advised me to deliver the baby before week 40, since my baby will feed better if I started breastfeeding then from my placenta. This was the best decision and totally worth having the consultant.

6. On the day of the delivery my consultant was present the whole time. During the labour stages your consultant, mid wife and other staff will be with you to follow you and guide you through these hard but precious moments. Of course labour can be difficult but having the consultant there to share these moments with you is just such a peace of mind because she tells you every minute / hour what comes next.

All these points are very important so I would strongly recommend having a consultant led pregnancy because as a first time mom everything is new. Of course having a 2nd or 3rd baby it is all very different since you have gone through these stages already.

I would strongly suggest my consultant and here she is:

https://thekensingtonwing.co.uk/team-member/angela-yulia/

Very thankful to her 🙏

Please do reach out if you have any questions about consultant vs mid wife led pregnancy or if you have questions about Chelsea & Westminster Hospital.