Early pregnancy support · Stockton Heath
You waited years for this.
And now you’re terrified.
Nobody warned you the positive test would not feel like joy. Or that you would be checking the paper every time you went to the loo, at 4 in the morning, with a scan still 6 weeks away and nothing to reassure you.You are not ungrateful. This is what it is like when you had to fight to get here.
Early pregnancy support for people who struggled to conceive. Acupuncture with fertility and pregnancy trained practitioners, bloodwork review, and somebody in the room.
Already a patient here? Just carry on booking. Tell us and we’ll change what we do.
Before any of the practical bits
You are not enjoying this, and you cannot tell anyone.
That is the bit, isn’t it. Not the sickness. Not the tiredness. That.
You wanted this more than you have wanted anything. You paid for it, injected for it, cried about it, rearranged your whole life around it for years. And then 2 lines appeared and you waited to feel the thing everybody promised you would feel, and it did not come. What came instead was fear.
So now you are pregnant and you cannot say a word about it. Not to your mum, who is beside herself. Not to your friends, who cried when you told them. Not to your partner, who has finally stopped being frightened and you cannot bear to start him off again.
You are counting days. You are checking the paper. You are taking a test you do not need because the line being darker is the only evidence anybody has offered you in 3 weeks. You are afraid to buy anything. You are afraid to say the word out loud.
None of that makes you ungrateful. It makes you someone who knows exactly what there is to lose, because you have spent years learning it.
People who conceived easily get to be excited. You get to be vigilant. Those are 2 very different pregnancies.
And there is no appointment for it. No box on a form. The whole system assumes you arrived here happy, and it has nothing to say to somebody who arrived here braced.
What everyone says
All meant kindly. None of it any use.
“You must be over the moon!” “Try to relax and enjoy it.” “Stressing isn’t good for the baby.” “You got there in the end!” “Everything happens for a reason.” “Just think positive.”
“Stressing isn’t good for the baby” might be the single least helpful sentence ever said to a frightened pregnant woman.
Because now you are anxious about being anxious, and you have added guilt to a pile that was already quite tall. Nobody here is going to tell you to relax. We know exactly why you are not relaxed, and it is not a personal failing.
The gap
This is where things get missed.
This is the part that shocks people, and it is the practical reason this page exists.
If you went through a clinic, they discharge you at around 8 weeks. You have spent months being monitored to the millimetre, scanned constantly, phoned with numbers, and then one morning it stops. That was the last appointment. Good luck.
Your midwife will see you somewhere around 8 to 10 weeks for a booking appointment, which is largely paperwork, and your scan is at about 12. Between those points there is nothing. No bloods. No checks. No phone call. Nothing at all.
And if you conceived naturally after years of trying, it is worse. There was never a clinic. You went from a positive test straight into the void, and the first time anybody official acknowledges this pregnancy is a form.
So there you are, in the weeks you are most frightened of, having fought for years to get here, with very little support. It is not that the system is cruel. It is that the system is built for someone who is not you, and it has no idea you are standing there.
We are the somebody.
Not instead of your midwife or your clinic. Alongside them, in the weeks when neither of them is looking. Someone who knows your whole history, remembers what it took to get here, and who you can see next Tuesday rather than in a month.
If anything worries us, we tell you to ring your midwife or your early pregnancy unit, and we will say so plainly rather than reassure you into staying put.
2 ways to start
How we can help with early pregnancy.
Pick the one that fits where you are now. They work well together: the bloods show us where to focus, and acupuncture is the support week to week.
Best place to start
Fertility acupuncture
Regular support, every step
Pregnancy acupuncture from fertility trained practitioners who know which points to use, and which to avoid, at each stage.
- First appointment, 75 min£75
- Follow ups, 60 min£59
Bloodwork review
A proper look at your bloods
If you want a second look at what was and was not checked, we go through your bloods and history with you.
- Fertility Brew & Review, 60 min£140
- Both on Board, couples, 75 min£185
Not sure which is right for you? Book a free 15 minute call and we will point you the right way.
Who you’d see
Who’s actually in the room.
Our acupuncture team
7 registered practitioners
Fertility trained, and trained in pregnancy, which are not the same qualification and both matter here. The same practitioner every visit, who remembers the whole thing without being reminded.
Gaynor Almond
Fertility specialist · bloodwork & emotional support
Gaynor reads your bloods against optimal ranges and tells you what is worth raising with your midwife now rather than at 20 weeks. Thyroid in particular does not stop mattering because you are pregnant. She also offers emotional support, a gentle hybrid of talking therapy and hypnotherapy.
Georgia Briscall
Functional nutritionist
Georgia works with what is actually going on underneath rather than handing you a list. Tell her you are pregnant at booking so the whole session is built around it.
In their words
From people who sat where you are.
★★★★★
“My pregnancy massage with Andrea was lovely. It really helped with my back pain and left me feeling totally relaxed.”
Molly Gibbons · Google review
★★★★★
“I booked in a last minute breech baby support treatment with Lisa after my little one decided to turn breech at 39 weeks!… It was so relaxing and Lisa was the loveliest woman ever, there was never a moment I felt uncomfortable!”
Emily Bull · Google review
★★★★★
“Gaynor is incredible! I contacted her after a miscarriage and while struggling with my cycles… Since then, she has continued to support me with my next steps.”
Freya Knowles · Google review
Taken from our Google reviews. 5.0 from 112 reviews.
Good to know
Questions people ask
No, and we are not going to say otherwise. We cannot offer you that and anybody who implies they can is selling you something. If you lose this pregnancy it will not be because of anything you did or did not do, and it will not be because you were anxious. What we offer is not insurance. It is skilled hands, somebody paying attention during the weeks when little else is, and 1 hour where you do not have to pretend to be fine.
Treatment in pregnancy is not the same as treatment before it. There are points we use and points we do not, and that is not a preference, it is training. Our practitioners are fertility trained and know pregnancy, and your treatment changes the moment you tell us you are pregnant. That is the real answer to this question, and it is worth asking of anybody who treats you in pregnancy, here or anywhere else.
No. Book as you always do and tell us. Same practitioner, same room, different treatment. You do not have to start again or explain yourself to somebody new, which is rather the point.
Because you know exactly what there is to lose, and you learned it the hard way over several years. People who conceived easily get to be excited. You get to be vigilant. Those are different pregnancies, and the second one is rarely talked about. It does not make you ungrateful and it is not a character flaw. It is what happens when hope has cost you something.
It is, and it is the reason this page exists. Your clinic discharges you at around 8 weeks. Your midwife sees you at roughly 8 to 10 for what is largely paperwork, and your scan is at about 12. In between there is no bloods, no checks, no support. The system is not being cruel. It is built for somebody who is not you.
It is 1 of the most common reasons people come to us in the first trimester. Morning sickness is a terrible name for something that is often all day. We will not promise you what leaves. What we will say is that it is 1 of the things people book for most. If you cannot keep fluids down or you are losing weight, that is not for us. Ring your midwife or GP today.
You don’t have to do these weeks on your own.
Tell us how many weeks you are and we will work around your dates. If you are already a patient here, just book as normal and tell us when you arrive.
Book acupuncture£75 first appt, 75 min · then £59, 60 min Fertility Brew & Review£140 · 60 min · in person or online Book functional nutritionwith Georgia · from £75 · 1 hour Free 15 minute callno pressure, no jargon
Or call us on 01925 612 208 · 30a London Road, Stockton Heath, Warrington WA4 6HN