Pregnant women can now make a simple self referral to maternity care.
By completing a simple online form on NHS.uk, pregnant women can now refer themselves directly to their local maternity services without seeing a GP first.
The new NHS England service enables families to choose which NHS trust to refer themselves to, helping them to meet their midwife and begin NHS pregnancy care as early as possible.
First appointments are vital to help expectant mums talk through anything that might be worrying them about their pregnancy and arrange important early screening tests including to identify those with potentially high-risk pregnancies.
While most women do not need to see a GP before they start their pregnancy care with their midwife, anyone can still request to see their GP if they’d like to – and those with other health conditions will still be encouraged to meet with their doctor to discuss any changes to their existing care.
The new NHS drive to help speed up access to pregnancy care comes following latest data showing only 62% of first appointments with maternity services happened within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy in 2023/24.
The earlier mums access care, the sooner the NHS can also offer antenatal screening – and the midwife will also ask mums about their medical history, including any past pregnancies, their general health, and any medications they’re taking to develop a personalised care plan based on their needs.
Over three-quarters of trusts in England are now connected to the maternity self-refer service, supporting nearly 85,000 (84,678) people to access maternity services more quickly.
“It’s so important that newly pregnant women get the support they need as soon as possible, so this new tool makes it easier than ever to book that all-important first maternity care appointment.
“Making this process simpler at the touch of a button is a vital step in empowering women to take control of their pregnancy journey right from the very start and improving access to timely, personalised care”. Kate Brintworth, NHS chief midwife
It is estimated that the new service could also lead to 180,000 fewer calls to GPs and up to 30,000 fewer general practice appointments each year.
Before the launch of the new tool, expectant mums have been able to self-refer via local Trust sites; however it’s estimated that only 50% of people were accessing these services directly, with many going unnecessarily via their GP to access maternity care, as we also found from local feedback to us in Halton.
“Giving women more control and more agency over their care during pregnancy, labour, birth and the postnatal period can only be a good thing. Midwives are best placed to support women to make informed choices about their care, so the earlier the better in terms of access to specialist maternity teams. Making sure those who don’t have easy access to smartphones and technology aren’t excluded from this will be really important”. Abbie Aplin, the RCM’s Director of Maternity Reform and Improvement
Families can use the maternity portal to self-refer to NHS maternity services and start their pregnancy care with a midwife.
