Care during your pregnancy

Your antenatal care (during your pregnancy) will usually be provided by a community midwife in either your GP surgery or a local children's centre.

Some appointments will be scheduled in for antenatal clinic at the hospital (Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital, Burnley General Teaching Hospital or Rossendale health centre). In addition to the routine two scans shown below, it may be indicated that you also need to see a specialist Doctor (obstetrician, combined speciality clinic, dietician), specialist midwife (screening, mental health, enhanced care) or attend for extra scans (placenta clinic, rainbow clinic, growth scans, fetal medicine).

The guideline for scheduled appointments below is in accordance with the NICE guidelines (Antenatal Care 2008, updated 2019), but can be personalised depending on the individual circumstances:

When you first find out you are pregnant it can feel overwhelming; this is usually after your first missed period and having a positive pregnancy test. You will need to 'book in' with maternity services, and ideally, this should be between 8-10wks pregnant (earlier if you have any pre-existing medical conditions).

From 9 November 2021 the way that women access and book into the maternity service changed as the Trust introduced Badgernet, an electronic patient record system.

Expectant parents self-refer directly into the service via an online booking form, where they will fill in their details, be assigned to a midwife and an appointment will be generated. 

The introduction of this system removed the need for women to get an appointment with their GP before being referred through to the service, and ensures that they are seen by a midwife as soon as possible. 

Women who do not have digital access can telephone the service to self-refer for their pregnancy care.

To find out more about Badgernet, click here.

Click here to access the self-referral portal.