maze grill

am without a doubt a creature of habit and justify my beef-eating as defensive diet to avoid pregnancy-related anaemia. 

that said, feel horribly let down by my GP and nhs antenatal care in general. had booking visit at week 8, returned to sg week 9, registered at new practice week 17 and informed them that i needed an urgent referral to local maternity services because anomaly scan (done at 18-20 weeks) was coming up. was reassured by the f2 i saw that this would be done. a month passed and i started to wonder if i would ever see the midwife. rang the GP surgery repeatedly to follow up week 21 onwards (because i thought it was reasonable to wait a month before kicking up a fuss) and was told by various people to 'wait till the end of the week then ring again' if i'd still not heard from the midwives. by which time, i was so frustrated i gave up and paid for an anomaly scan at harley street because, uh, if there's anything wrong with the baby i'd 1) want to know 2) be in time for legal termination. had the scan at 23 weeks (late) and thankfully all good. continued to ring the GP asking why no midwife appointment and finally spoke to a receptionist who took ownership and said he'd personally check with the hospital. turns out the previous referrals were never received (!!!) and he made a new referral at week 25 (!!!), i finally got an appointment for week 27 (thanks) and scan for week 28 (no thanks, way too late!). so i see the midwife week 27 and get put through third degree about why i was a 'late booker' something associated with single mothers, unplanned pregnancy, chaotic lives and general irresponsibility and i swear she's about to call social services on me. she takes another set of bloods (yuck) because they've to be done by their own lab. week 30 comes and i ring the GP practice to ask about my blood results. apparently it takes more than 3 weeks to get results for routine bloods (i wanted to know if there were any abnormalities eg anaemia) and you guessed it, "please keep calling to check". ARGH. what's a girl to do. 

so i decide to take matters into my own hands and comfort eat steak (in addition to making sure my antenatal vitamins contain iron) just in case, you know.