Here is what mums asked our midwives this week: I cannot always get hold of my midwife between appointments what are my options?

This week is National Midwifery Week and we wanted to mark it by answering one of the questions we hear most often from pregnant mums. Not a clinical question about symptoms or scan results but a practical one about access. Because one of the most common things mums tell us is that they know what to do if something feels seriously wrong, but they do not always know what to do when something just feels uncertain. And that gap between appointments can feel like a very long time.

So this week we are answering it properly.

Why do mums struggle to reach their midwife between appointments?

Community midwives carry large caseloads and work across a wide area. Appointments are scheduled at set points throughout pregnancy and while your midwife will always give you contact details at your booking appointment, getting through to the right person between those scheduled visits is not always straightforward. This is not a failure of care it is a reflection of how stretched NHS maternity services are. National Midwifery Week is a moment to recognise that, celebrate the midwives who show up every day regardless, and make sure every pregnant mum knows exactly where to turn.

For urgent concerns — maternity triage

If you have any urgent concerns about yourself or your baby, the NHS recommends contacting your maternity triage line directly. This is a 24 hour, 7 day a week service available at most NHS trusts and it is there specifically for situations that cannot wait. You do not need to call your GP first and you do not need to feel like you are overreacting.

Urgent concerns that should always be directed to maternity triage include reduced or changed baby movements, any vaginal bleeding, severe headaches or visual disturbances, abdominal or chest pain, sudden swelling of your face, hands or feet, a high temperature, and feeling generally very unwell in a way that does not feel normal for pregnancy.

Your maternity triage number should be on your maternity notes. If you cannot find it, call your hospital's main number and ask to be put through to maternity triage. If you are ever in any doubt about whether something is urgent, call 999 or 111 rather than waiting.

For non-urgent questions — your community midwife team

For questions that are not urgent — test results, general pregnancy concerns, queries about how you are feeling or questions about your care plan — the NHS recommends contacting your community midwife team during working hours. Many NHS trusts also have email options for non-urgent queries, and some offer online messaging services. Your midwife should give you these contact details at your booking appointment, but if you are not sure how to reach your team, your hospital's maternity website will have the information you need.

For everyday questions between appointments — Dearbump

There is a third category that often goes unaddressed, the everyday questions that are not urgent enough for triage but feel too big to sit with until your next appointment. The 3am worry about a new symptom. The question you forgot to ask at your last appointment. The thing you read online that you cannot stop thinking about.

This is exactly why the Dearbump midwife chat exists. With Dearbump Premium you can ask a real midwife anything and get friendly, personalised advice whenever you need it. Not a generic article. Not a Google result. A real answer from a real person who genuinely knows 💛

A note on never feeling like a burden

Whatever your question and however small it feels, you are never wasting anyone's time by asking it. Pregnancy comes with so much uncertainty and you deserve access to answers throughout it not just at the moments your appointments happen to be scheduled. If something does not feel right, or if you are simply not sure, reach out. Every midwife who works in maternity care chose that role because they want to support you. Let them.

Happy National Midwifery Week to every midwife reading this. What you do changes lives every single day 💛

Got a question of your own?

Every week our midwives answer the questions mums are actually asking.Got a question of your own? Our midwives are available right inside the Dearbump app, ready to answer it directly.