Should you need urgent health advice please contact your GP or call NHS 111. In an emergency please visit A&E or call 999

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Pregnancy appointments and scans

This page will tell you about the appointments you will have if you are having a healthy and uncomplicated pregnancy.

Some pregnancies may need extra appointments with doctors. These appointments will be made for you.

Your midwife will make sure you understand your care before anything is done. This is known as ‘consent’.

Always ask if you are not sure about anything.

Missed antenatal appointments

It is important that you have regular appointments, so the health of you and your baby can be checked.

If you cannot come to an appointment with your community midwife, please call the number below and select option 5.

If you cannot come to a hospital appointment, please call the number below and select option 2.

Leicester Maternity Services Contact Number: 0116 258 6111

For the Leicester General Hospital Press 1 

For the Leicester Royal Infirmary Press 2

You will then be given the following options:

Press 1: For urgent maternity advice from a midwife (Maternity Assessment Unit advice, after 16 weeks of pregnancy)

Press 2: For antenatal clinic or scan appointments (8:30am to 4:30pm)

Press 3: For delivery suite (if you think you are in labour or to discuss a booked induction of labour)

Press 4: For the hospital birth centres (Meadows and Orchard), if you think you are in labour and are planning to use the birth centre

Press 5: For the community midwives (Monday to Friday 9am to 4:15pm, Saturday and Sunday 8:30am to 11:45am)

Press 6: For a Fetal Medicine Midwife if you have been seen by them in the hospital (8am to 5pm)

For St Mary’s Birth Centre call: 01664 854 854

Melton Mowbray Hospital

Please note from 7 July 2025, births and inpatient postnatal services at St Mary’s Birth Centre will be paused due to safe staffing challenges and low birth numbers.

Home births and community-based antenatal and postnatal care in the area will continue uninterrupted. Midwifery-led units are available at the Leicester Royal Infirmary and the Leicester General Hospital. Information about the changes is available on the UHL website. If you have any concerns regarding your pregnancy, please speak with your named midwife.

For the Homebirth Team call: 0116 258 3425

During appointments, you and your baby’s health will be checked through, this will include:

  • Blood pressure check (at every appointment)
  • Urine test (at every appointment). This is to check for protein and sugar (glucose). This may be a sign of diabetes or pre-eclampsia
  • Your baby’s movements
  • The midwife will feel your tummy to check the position and how deep your baby is in your pelvis (the lie, presentation and engagement of your baby)
  • Measuring your baby’s growth

If you wish, the midwife or doctor can listen to your baby’s heartbeat with a handheld doppler from 25 weeks.

The use of home fetal dopplers to listen to your baby’s heartbeat is not recommended because:

  • It can be difficult to find baby’s heartbeat sometimes
  • Handheld dopplers can pick up your heart rate instead of baby’s heart rate. This means you might think that your baby is ok even though they might not be
  • Just because you can hear a baby’s heartbeat does not mean the baby is well
  • Midwives look at lots of different factors when they listen to your baby’s heartbeat

If you have concerns about your baby, you should always contact the Maternity Assessment Unit. 

You will be given a handheld maternity booklet to keep during your pregnancy. We advise that you always keep these notes with you. Please make sure you bring these notes with you to every appointment. This includes scan and hospital appointments.

Image of the maternity booklet

Your appointments

Scroll through the sections below and click on the title for more information:

Personalised Care Plans

During your pregnancy you can add comments, questions, and preferences about your care in your personalised care plan. This will be given to you at your pregnancy booking appointment.

ChatHealth Logo

Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust runs a confidential secure text messaging service for parents of children aged 0-19 years called Chat Health. The service operates Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm, excluding bank holidays. All texts will be responded to by a public health nurse (health visitor/school nurse) within 24 hours. Outside of the service working hours, you’ll receive a message back to inform you that your text will be responded to once the line reopens.

Healthy Together Logo

Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust runs the Healthy Together Helpline for parents and carers in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. The Helpline’s qualified health and administrative professionals offer easy to access, safe and free advice, support and signposting. Calls are answered from 9am – 4.30pm on weekdays, excluding bank holidays. Calls are charged at the same rate as calling a standard landline number.

Should you require urgent health advice in the meantime, please contact your GP, visit an NHS walk-in centre or call NHS 111. For emergencies, dial 999 or visit A&E.

Page last reviewed: 06-12-2023

Next review due: 06-12-2026