You’ve Found Out You’re Expecting a Baby- What Are The Next Steps?

**Collaborative post**

You’ve just seen two lines on a pregnancy test- congratulations! Whether you’re a first-time mum-to-be or already a seasoned parent, chances are you feel a little overwhelmed right now and might be unsure about exactly what your next steps should be. Read on for some guidance. 

Refer yourself to maternity services, and have testing done

Once you have confirmed your pregnancy with a positive test, you can go ahead and refer yourself directly to maternity services. From here, a midwife will contact you back and get you booked into the system after asking a few questions to gauge roughly how far along you are in the pregnancy. It used to be a case of going to the GP to confirm pregnancy but you no longer have to contact a GP at all, however, if there’s anything you’re unsure about you can of course book an appointment. You’ll find the number for the maternity services in your area with a quick Google search. If you don’t want to wait until your twelve-week NHS scan, you’re free to book private scans at any point in your pregnancy. A dating ultrasound scan can be useful in the beginning if you’re very unsure of your dates or just need some reassurance early on. You can book a gender scan to find out the sex of the baby any time after sixteen weeks gestation, or if you want to know even sooner, blood tests such as Sneak Peek can be done from just six weeks of pregnancy. This is a finger prick blood test which is sent to a lab and confirms if there is any male DNA present in the sample. If there is, it means you’re having a boy, and if not it means you’re having a girl. You will have a midwife ‘booking in’ appointment when you’re around ten weeks gestation and from here you will be screened and tested for a number of health-related things to keep you and your baby as safe as possible during your pregnancy journey. 

Focus on a healthy lifestyle

One of the most productive things you can do when you find out you’re expecting is to live as healthily as possible. Obvious things include stopping drinking and smoking, reducing caffeine and any other drugs or chemicals you’re exposed to but maintaining a good level of exercise (speak to your midwife about this to find out what’s safe for you personally) and eating well. Pregnancy nausea occurs in almost 80% of women so chances are you will have aversions and be limited in what you can physically eat in some way or another. But doing your best to get plenty of nutrition and taking pregnancy vitamins is important. 

Start planning 

Everyone is different when it comes to when they feel comfortable with buying baby things. Some are happy to buy right away, others wait until after the twelve-week scan and others later on. But either way, start planning what you will need for the baby as they do need a lot of stuff! If you write a list you can begin coming up with a plan financially for spreading the cost, don’t forget to check places like Facebook marketplace for bargains.