Midwife house calls

I gave birth at a private hospital in London. The hospital sent all the info to the community midwife who then visited me at home for the first follow-up appointment. The rest of the appointments were at a nearby NHS hospital. Whether they visit you at home or you go to a clinic or hospital depends on your area.

I gave birth at nhs hospital and didn’t get any midwife home visits (just a phone call as insufficient staff available) so don’t get your hopes up… but I was at a hospital out of catchment and they referred me to the local catchment for all post-birth midwife services (most involved trekking into a health center), so I imagine private would do something similar.

If you are delivering at the Portland, there is not a private postpartum midwife service or at least that's what they told me. If you or the baby have postpartum issues, you can call the L&D ward at the Portland and they will tell you if you should come in. As Jennifer mentioned, community midwives are hit or miss and you may not have the same one for every appt. So I chose to call my hospital's L&D ward for postpartum issues (I had high blood pressure and severe neck/shoulder pain due to bad breastfeeding posture and my hospital saw me for those issues). You can inquire about all of this at your midwife booking appt.

@Victoria yes I’m also delivering at the Portland! Ah so for weighing the baby etc to know if they are growing properly—we dont get any of those services unless we make a separate appointment?

@Ji community midwife will weigh the baby at the 5 day and 10 day appt. The baby will also be weighed before you leave the hospital. You can also go to the children's center nearby (your health visitor will tell you the nearest location) to weigh the baby. Otherwise, the GP (or if you have a private pediatrician) will also weigh the baby at the 6 week appt.