Baby Week: Meet your Doncaster Midwives and Health visitors

If you’re expecting a baby, you’ll no doubt have many questions and  you might wonder what you do first, who you will see along your journey, who can help? 

We’ve worked with the Doncaster Maternity Voices Partnership to create this blog full of information for expectant or new mums and dads.  Here they will introduce you to the midwifery team in Doncaster and our local health visitors so that you know what to expect and who to contact.

Meet your Midwives

If you have just found out that you are pregnant, you can register on mypregnancynotes.com . The community midwifery team will be automatically notified and will arrange your booking appointment within 2 weeks (you will get an appointment letter). Alternatively you can call the Maternity Records Department on 01302 642814 who will complete the referral on your behalf.

Meet Jackie who has been a midwife for 11 years. Here is explains what she does as a Digital Midwife in Doncaster

During your midwife appointments you can talk to your midwife about anything that you’re unsure of. If you need to contact your midwife/maternity support worker you can phone the Community Midwifery Hub in Doncaster on 01302 642794.

If you choose to give birth in hospital will ‘book’ at either Doncaster Women’s Hospital or Bassetlaw Hospital.

Here are some of our local midwives who have filmed some helpful videos on:

• Doncaster Maternity Vaccines (Lyndsay Williamson, Midwife)
• Doncaster Maternit Infant Feeding (Theresa Mason, Senior Midwife) 
• Doncaster Maternity Healthy Weight (Charlotte Standing, Maternity Matron) 
• Doncaster Maternity Smoking (Petrina Ryan, Health Perception Midwife0

You might also like to read our Birth and Baby Preparation blog for information on antenatal classes, what to put in your hospital bag and top tips for birthing partners.

See our blog about the NEW Central Delivery Suite at DRI which opened in April 2023. 

Here is a great video about your Doncaster Maternity Journey

 

Other useful numbers:

Early Pregnancy Assessment Unit (You can be referred either by a Community Midwife or GP, or they you can contact the unit yourself for advice ). Doncaster 01302 642653 / Bassetlaw  01909 572224

Antenatal Assessment Unit (ANAU). Doncaster 01302 642713 / Bassetlaw 01909 502092

Triage (For when you have no rest between contractions, changed baby movements, water loss, any bleeding, abdominal pain or 3 contractions in 10 minutes. 01302 642711

Doncaster Central Delivery Suite (on floor 6 of the Women’s Hospital) 01302 642644

 

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Meet the Doncaster Health Visitors

Zoe Parker, Health Visitor and Team Leader at RDaSH NHS has put together a great video for Baby Week, to tell you a little bit about what you can expect and how you can reach the Doncaster Health Visiting team.

You can also see Zoe talk to Healthwatch Doncaster about the Doncaster Mumbler Baby Week here. 

Key points:

• Health Visitors, Nursery Nurses and Health Promotion Practitioners might also be referred to as Community Specialist Public Health Nurses!
• Health Visitors are there to support you and your child until around your child’s 5th birthday
• Health Visitors will first visit you antenatally, when you are between 28 weeks- 35 weeks in to your pregnancy.
• Your next visit will be when your baby is 10-14 days old, then 6-8 weeks, 10-12 months and 2 years
• During this time you will see all members of their team who can support with your childs development, infant feeding and can help you and your partner stop smoking.
• They also run First Friends and Growing Friends Groups within the Family Hubs and Breast Start groups.
• If you need to speak to someone, there is a Single Point of Contact 01302 566776 – write this number down, pop it in your phone or bookmark this page as you’ll need it if you have any queries, questions, problems, need support or if you need to rearrange appointments, update your details. Lines are open Monday-Friday 9am-4.30pm and someone will take your details and then someone will call you back the same day.
• You’ll also want to follow the Doncaster Health Visitors Facebook Page for regular updates and information. You can also message the page.
• There is also a free app for all Doncaster parents/carers of children and babies aged 0-5. You can download that on the App store for free here or Google Play here and get direct contact with a Health Visitor, book an online appointment.