Maternity

Details

Every woman who is pregnant and ordinarily a resident in Ireland (living here and intend to remain here for at least one year) is entitled to maternity care under the Dual Care Maternity Scheme.

This scheme provides an agreed programme of care and is provided by both a registered GP and a hospital obstetrician.  You do not need a medical card to avail of this scheme. 

We know that finding out you are expecting can be full of a mixture of emotions and we hope that we are here to help and guide you and your family through one of the most important episodes of your life.

FAQ

When you discover you are pregnant you will need to attend a GP that you wish to cover your Dual Care and register with them, this is classed as your first visit and should ideally be before week 12 of the pregnancy.  You will need to complete some paperwork at the surgery and also select which hospital you want to register with. We then send off this paperwork for you and you will receive a letter through the post confirming that you are eligible for the scheme.

Every hospital is different to register with so the best thing is to contact the Administration office of your chosen hospital to find out how you actually personally register with them.  Filling out the form with us doesn’t automatically do this. You will then get a letter with your first appointment from the hospital which will be before week 20 of the pregnancy.

Yes, you can!  You just need to complete the paperwork again at the new surgery and ask them to send it off.  It’s also worth checking with the HSE that this has been done.

It covers all 6-7 maternity visits with the GP (first visit before week 12), week 24, week 28 (not first pregnancy), week 30, week 34, week 37, week 39 and the subsequent two visits after the birth.

It also covers the hospital maternity visits before week 20, week 28 (subsequent pregnancies), week 32, week 36, week 38 and week 40.

It does not cover any unrelated visits although if you suffer from a significant illness such as diabetes you may have up to an additional 5 visits to the GP but this must be notified at appointment booking stage.

Please see the below table for further details. Insert Dual Care Maternity visits here.

You will get two short appointments for each visit, one with the Doctor and one with the Nurse.  Certain elements are always undertaken at each visit such as a urine sample and blood pressure. We can offer appointments during the day, evening and weekends but you must always book an appointment as both the Doctor and Nurse need to be present.  Just give reception a call if your appointment wasn’t already scheduled at your previous visit.

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