Pregnancy Care In Newcastle

At your initial visit, Dr Mary Norris will review your medical, surgical, obstetric, social and family history, perform a physical examination and scan your pregnancy to ensure viability and give you a due date. Dr Norris will ensure you have the recommended antenatal blood and urine screen performed, which includes:

Based on your history, Dr Norris will formulate a personalised obstetric care plan to meet your pregnancy needs.

Screening for gestational diabetes through a fasting 75-gram Glucose Tolerance Test (GTT) is routinely performed at 28 weeks or earlier if clinically indicated. Screening for haemologlobin, ferritin and syphilis will also be repeated at this time.

Routine screening for Group B streptococcus with a rectovaginal swab is performed at 34 weeks gestation.

Fluvax is recommended anytime during your pregnancy. Whooping cough (Boostrix) vaccination is recommended from 28 weeks gestation. 

Antenatal visits are routinely scheduled monthly up to 28 weeks gestation, fortnightly to 36 weeks, then weekly until you give birth. However, this schedule may change depending on y our pregnancy needs.

At each antenatal visit, Dr Norris will answer any questions you may have, check your blood pressure and ensure your baby is growing appropriately.

For your convenience, all recommended pregnancy scans are performed on-site by either Dr Norris or by a member of her sonography team.

Dr Norris recommends combined first trimester screened for Down Syndrome (Trisomy 21), Trisomy 18 and Trisomy 13. This scan is also an opportunity to screen for early-onset preeclampsia and to review the fetal anatomy. This is performed between 11 and 14 weeks gestation. There is also the option of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) as part of this screening module. Dr Norris will clarify further at your initial appointment.

A morphology scan is routinely performed between 18 to 20 weeks to check the fetal anatomy, placental location and cervical length.

Dr Norris will routinely perform a fetal growth scan at 28 and 36 weeks gestation or at more regular intervals if clinically indicated.

Following the birth of your baby, Dr Norris will review you daily in hospital until you are discharged home. Dr Norris will see you again six weeks after the birth of your baby for a postnatal checkup.

Review at your six-week check include the following:

Booking in to Newcastle Private Hospital is preferred online. A Healthscope eAdmission leaflet will be given to you at your initial appointment.

Book in as a private patient with your antenatal sheet at the Admissions desk.

Once you have booked into the hospital, keep these numbers with you in case of any after-hours enquiries and for when you go into labour. When you call either hospital with any problems, you will speak to a midwife who will contact Dr Norris.