Doctors visits while pregnant

[Karina]

Just wondering: Approximately how many times or how often throughout your pregnancy do you need to go to have check ups and ultrasounds?

Obviously, they'll tell you this when you book in, but as im not pregnant i haven booked in. Just curious really

[Beckibee]

Karina - my understanding is once-a-month appointments generally until 28 weeks, then fortnightly until 36weeks and then weekly appointments until your due date.

[Antheia]

What Beckibee said lol and ultrasounds your normally have one at 13 weeks and another one at 20 weeks.

[Karina]

So you usually only have 2 ultrasounds?

When do you usually go for your first appointment to see a doctor/midwife/whatever?

[Antheia]

You should go to your GP when you find out your pregnant when you can be refered to OB or whatever care you would like.

Some people have more than those 2 ultrasounds Like they may have one a 6-7 weeks to make sure of dates etc, but usually its just those two yes.

[~Raven~]

I'll 3rd what Beckibee said for appts.
I had 2 ultrasounds the first at around 10 weeks. The second was 18 wks for #1 and 23 wks for #2. The delay for #2 was due to christmas it was hard to get appt.
The ob also had his own u/s machine and toward the end he'd check the fluid levels every week when I went there for appt.

I don't think they reccomend any further scans unless they find something they want to keep an eye on.

[Beckibee]

I guess the first appointment with the GP depends on when you discover you're pregnant. I wanted 'shared care' between my GP & the midwives/OB at my local public hospital so I requested a referral from my GP at my first proper appointment. Alternatively, if you're choosing to have private cover or your own OB, I believe you can start calling around to find out about availabilities. All of this is ideally done as early in pg as you can....from what I've heard, any available spaces fill up VERY quickly.

The number of Ultrasounds depends on your pregnancy and your GP. I found from my local hospital that they pretty much only do the 18-22wk morphology scan now. Of course, if you have unexplained bleeding or cramping, they will generally send you for an U/S to check everything is ok.

[Karina]

Excellent! Thanks for your replies!