Everything You Need To Know About Antenatal Care During Pregnancy
Things to Know about Antenatal Care during Pregnancy
What is Antenatal care? The antenatal care is pregnancy examinations and health education for antenatal mother conducted by the obstetricians and other medical experts. The main purpose of the guidelines is to improve the physical and medical health of the pregnant mothers. Therefore, they can just pass through the pregnancy and labor healthily and happily.
More than that, the examinations in the antenatal care is also to know the health conditions of both mom and infant entirely. The diseases, disorders, and pregnancy complications can just be detected earlier. The infant’s growth is also monitored properly based on the gestational age and all possible risks.
Counseling is commonly conducted during the antenatal care. Despite helping the moms to face the childbirth in a more relaxed body and mind, it educates them what to do after the pregnancy including caring the baby, breastfeeding, and keeping the reproduction organs healthy.
Purposes of Antenatal Care Based on the Gestational Ages
The pregnant moms should undergo the antenatal care at least 4 times during the pregnancy. the first one is on the 14th week of pregnancy. This guideline is to know the main risks during the first trimester and prevent the anemia.
The second examination is during 14th-28th week of pregnancy. In this antenatal care, awareness is given for the risks of some diseases and disorders including pre-eclampsia syndromes and too high or too low blood pressure. Any other complications can also be detected in this period so that further treatments can be given earlier.
The third and fourth examinations of Antenatal care are done during the third trimester or near the labor. This examination is to know the growth and position of the infant as well as the mom’s mental conditions. Not only is it to smooth the labor process, the last examinations are to educate the moms about all things to do after the baby is born.
Those 4 examinations are considered compulsory. However, it is more suggested for the moms to do the antenatal care every month starting from at the first time being detected to be pregnant. Besides, gaining more knowledge via patient education websites is also necessary.
The Examination Types in Antenatal Care
There are some types of examinations within the antenatal care. All of them are done in a certain order and there should not be one of them to be missed out. First, it is to know the current weight of the pregnant mom. If it is still not ideal, it must be added along with the gestational age. Underweight and overweight cases are often ignored whereas they have high risks towards both the mom and baby.
Second, it is the blood pressure to be measured to prevent pre-eclampsia as well as the fundus uteri that tends to be increased or decreased for every week. Third, the immunization of pregnancy is also conducted. Not only is it to improve the mom’s immune system, it is also important to avoid any problems caused by virus and bacteria that disturb the infant’s growth.
Fourth, the mom must also undergo some infectious diseases test including HIV/ AIDS, syphilis, gonorrhea, or TORCH infection. If one of them is detected, some other treatments are conducted to at least keep the baby’s health or not infected with those diseases.
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