What is an Antenatal Clinic?

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A young woman visiting a medical clinic in Newcastle upon Tyne, England with her baby son for a check up. She is sitting in a doctor's office while she discusses her baby's health with the nurse.

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What is an antenatal clinic?

In this article, we will describe what is an antenatal clinic.

Antenatal clinics are specialist clinics for women who are receiving doctor-led care in their pregnancy. Clinics help you meet doctors and specialist midwives to discuss any possible problems or concerns and make plans about your care.

You may receive doctor-led care (also called ‘consultant-led’ or ‘obstetric team’ care) in pregnancy if you (or your midwife) identifies any medical past/current health problems or pregnancy induced conditions.

Whether you are doctor-led, or midwife-led, is decided in your initial ‘booking’ (i.e. first) appointment with your midwife. This can change at any time in your pregnancy.

When you receive doctor-led care, you will be given a named consultant, who will be the person responsible for your care. If you do not know who your consultant is there are a few ways to find out:

Their name should be on the top of your clinic appointment letter
Ask your midwife at your next appointment
Telephone your local antenatal clinic and ask.

You might not always see your named consultant when you visit for your appointment, but they will always be present in the clinic and remain in charge of the overall decisions. You may instead be seen by the registrar (a doctor in the middle part of their training to become a consultant) to speed up waiting times. But they will still be able to discuss decisions with your named consultant.

Some hospitals may also have consultants who specialise in other areas such as cardiac (heart), renal (kidney) or endocrine (gland) problems (like diabetes). They visit these clinics to advise pregnant women with these conditions.

You may be given an appointment for an ultrasound scan or blood tests, prior to your appointment so that the doctor can use this information to make a plan of care with you.

Antenatal clinic appointments should be in addition to your routine midwife appointments, unless your midwife tells you otherwise.