Antenatal care
Your antenatal care
Community midwives run antenatal clinics in Children’s Centres and GP practices close to where you live, and are often the first point of contact for pregnant women. It is important you contact your midwife a soon as possible in pregnancy so that they can plan your ongoing care with you.
Your community midwife will provide all aspects of maternity care provided your pregnancy is straight forward. If problems are identified, your community midwife will refer you to the hospital team but will continue to offer you advice and support as part of your care plan.
Your ongoing pregnancy care will be provided in line with the current NICE guidelines for antenatal care, but appointments will be tailored to meet your individual needs. If your pregnancy is not straightforward you can expect to be offered an appointment with one of our team of obstetric consultants who will become the lead professional for your pregnancy and will review your plan of care with you. If problems are identified you will receive shared care with your consultant obstetrician and community midwife. These appointments will be tailored to meet your individual needs.
Where will your care be based?
Depending on your individual needs, your care will be based either in children’s centres or GP surgeries where Midwives have a clinic, or at one of our hospital Antenatal Clinics.
Specialist care for women with additional healthcare needs
We have specialist clinics where extra support is provided if you have additional healthcare needs in your pregnancy. Appointments for these clinics are made via your midwife or obstetrician.
Diabetic Clinic is run jointly with the diabetes specialist nurse, consultant obstetrician, dietician and midwife for diabetes. In the clinic we see pregnant mothers who are diagnosed with diabetes before their pregnancy and those who have developed diabetes during their pregnancy. The aim of the clinic is to provide high quality, individualised care for women with diabetes.
Fetal Medicine is a specialised clinic run by an obstetric consultant and a midwife who have training and expertise to provide care and advice to women whose pregnancies have been diagnosed with fetal abnormalities or problems.
HIV Clinic is run by a specialist midwife, obstetric consultant, HIV consultant and a specialist HIV nurse to support pregnant mothers who have been diagnosed with HIV during their pregnancy or before. They are offered high quality care to meet their individual needs.
Haemoglobinapthy Clinic is a multidisciplinary clinic where all blood results that have identified women with sickle cell disease or thalassemia are reviewed, action planed and referred accordingly.
Multiple Pregnancy Clinics are run by a highly trained specialist obstetric consultants to provide care and advice to mothers who are excepting two or more babies.
Obesity (Pregnancy plus) – If your BMI is 35 or above there are specialist services available in the borough that you live in.
Vaginal Birth after Caesarean Clinic (also known as VBAC) is run by an experienced midwife who facilitates discussion and advises pregnant mothers regarding their birth choice following their previous baby being delivered by caesarean section.
Birth Afterthoughts Clinic is an opportunity for a professional midwifery advocate to meet with women to discuss birth experiences and plan their birth choices.
Additional support available
Some women may need additional support during their pregnancy and after the baby is born. Support may be provided within Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust's maternity services at University Hospital Lewisham (UHL), Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), and/or from services provided in the community. Information on some of the support services available is given below, which you can discuss with your midwife.
| Additional support for: | Support provided by the hospital | Off-site support |
| Alcohol and substance misuse | River Clinic (QEH) Lands Clinic (UHL) |
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| Domestic violence | Best Beginnings (QEH) Kaleidoscope (UHL) |
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| Mental health issues | Time Team (QEH) Kaleidoscope (UHL) |
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| Recent migrant/asylum seekers | Interpretation Services Children Centres |
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| Smoking | Special Midwives | |
| Young/teenage pregnancy | Best Beginnings (QEH) Kaleidoscope (UHL) |
Family Nurse Practioner Children Centres |
The hospital support clinics are all run by specialist midwives who have expert knowledge and experience to care for women who may need this extra support, also having knowledge of support services available in the community.