Emma is in Canada and her situation was totally different.
Every month you get an appointment with your OB. The first appointment is your intake appointment and it can last over an hour with all the paperwork, weighing, measuring, possibly and US and a pelvic exam/pap smear. Then the appointments come every 4 weeks, you are weighed, blood pressure checked and your belly is measured. The doctor listens to the baby's heartbeat at EVERY appointment and the heartrate is recorded in your file.
During later appointments, you may also get another ultrasound and have to do the Gestational Diabetes test. Towards the end you start seeing your OB every 2 weeks instead of every 4 and the same process goes on - weighed and measured, etc. After a few weeks of going every 2 weeks, you start going every week and you really feel like you are getting to know your doctor and nurse.
Your family doctor has absolutely ZERO to do with your pregnancy if he is not an OB. Unless you have a medical condition outside of pregnancy - and even then he would be getting your chart from your OB to find out about your pregnancy, he would not rely on word of mouth.
So, no, it doesn't sound right at all. None of your experience sounds even remotely like that of any other pregnant woman I have ever spoken to and/or experienced myself. That would be why I questioned it. Canada isn't a third world nation, you have excellent health care - I just wondered why your personal experience was so incredibly different than everyone else's.