Give your baby the best start...

NHS Lewisham and University Hospital Lewisham now operate a direct access service for expectant mothers or women who think they maybe pregnant.

You can now choose whether you want to get in touch directly with your community midwife without seeing a GP first when you find out you may be pregnant.

To see a midwife, you can call or text 07554 115649 or email them to arrange an appointment at a time that suits you. We also run a number of community-based drop-in clinics around the borough where you can turn up on the day to see a midwife or a maternity support worker for information and advice.

Midwives have specialist knowledge and skills and are ideally placed to answer queries that expectant mothers may have. Pregnant women and their partners will be able to get information to help them to make choices about things like pregnancy screening tests, place of birth, type of birth and how to keep themselves and their baby as healthy as possible.

The service also offers:

• Free pregnancy testing
• Folic Acid

You can still go to your own GP and wait for referral to a midwife, but you now have the choice if you prefer to get in touch with a midwife directly. Either way, the GP is informed when you are in the care of our midwifery team.

This initiative was developed as a result of a government directive called ‘Maternity Matters’. It aims to develop a high quality, safe and accessible maternity service by providing women more choice around the type of care that they receive, as well as improving access to services and continuity of midwifery care and support.

In 2008, NHS Lewisham asked pregnant women and new parents in Lewisham how they would like to arrange their maternity care. The majority of them said they would much prefer to go straight to a midwife.