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Friday, June 17, 2011

ANC CHECK UP - IT’s A Great Feeling To Be A Mom.


IT’s A Great Feeling To Be A Mom.

                 As you realise and progress in your term, you and your body undergo several changes. Knowing what to expect when, helps you ease your fears and prepares you to deliver a baby in good health.
             From a single microscopic cell to the baby you love to hold in your arms, pregnancy is a time for rapid change. You can see yourself changing too. You will gain 9–14 kilos which include the weight of the placenta, uterus, blood, milk glands and the baby growing inside you.
           The entire duration of pregnancy can be divided into three trimesters, each lasting 3 months:
           1)The first trimester from conception to 12 weeks                       
           2)The second trimester from 13 to 28 weeks
           3)The third trimester from 28 weeks to the delivery
Good care and nutrition is important in all the three; however, the first trimester is often ignored as during the early stages, most women do not even realize that they are pregnant.

AN CHECK UP First trimester

Antenatal tests are performed during pregnancy to detect health problems in the growing foetus; establish characteristics such as foetal age or weight; or diagnose any other conditions that may affect foetal development.
Doctor's visit: First trimester
Your first pregnancy visit to the doctor provides the occasion for a complete physical examination.
Questions you might be asked
Last period.
Be prepared to give the date of your last period to determine a due date.
Your history.
The doctor will also want to know about your reproductive history (previous pregnancies, miscarriages, or abortions); any inherited disorders which may pass on to your child and any current or past illnesses.
Procedures/tests
Your stats.
The doctor or nurse will record your height, weight, blood pressure and pulse.
Physical.
The doctor will give you a general physical examination, paying special attention to the heart, lungs, abdomen and pelvis.
Pelvic exam.
You’ll also have a pelvic examination, which allows the doctor to estimate the size of the uterus and pelvis.
Blood test.
At your first visit, the doctor will also take blood samples to determine:
Your blood count, to see whether you’re anaemic
Your blood group, in case you need a transfusion
If you have HIV (AIDS) antibodies, which can affect your baby
If you have sickle-cell anaemia, thalassaemia (a rare blood disorder), or Tay-Sachs disease. These tests are only for those at risk
If you’re immune to rubella (German measles), a disease that can be devastating if contracted early in pregnancy
If a sexually transmitted disease or hepatitis B is present
Urinalysis.
The doctor will measure the protein and sugar in your urine. The urinalysis will detect excess protein, which can be a warning sign of preeclampsia: or high blood pressure in pregnancy.
Cervical swab.
This test is done for those who have had herpes. If the herpes virus is active before delivery, your doctor may suggest a caesarean section to avoid the possibility of infecting your baby.
Pap smear.
Done to check the cells of the cervix for early signs of cervical cancer.
Scheduling future visits
You should see your doctor every month until your 28th week. After that, you might need a checkup every three weeks for some time and then every two weeks. After the 36th week you might be seeing your doctor every week until your baby is born.
The important 12th week visit
Be sure to bring your partner to your 12th week visit. This is when you’ll be able to hear your baby’s heartbeat. Your doctor will place an electronic amplifying device called a Doppler scan on your abdomen. This instrument is safe and can be used right in the doctor’s office.
The heartbeat can’t be heard with a regular stethoscope until approximately 20 weeks. What you’ll hear is an earnest little heart pumping at about 140 beats per minute.
Until today your baby might have been just an idea of a child growing inside you. But once you hear the heartbeat, you would know that your baby is very real.

ANC CHECK UP Second trimester

            Throughout your second trimester, you’ll continue to visit your doctor once a month—unless there is a need for you to go more often. Each appointment would probably begin with you stepping onto the scale to ensure that you are gaining weight normally.
Monitoring your weight gain
During your fourth, fifth and six months, you should be gaining about 250 to 350 grammes a week. By tracking your weight, your doctor can estimate your baby’s growth and watch for signs of preeclampsia.
Doctors stress that you should try hard to stay within the proper weight recommended for your body. Straying too far from this guideline could lead to difficulties.
By gaining too much weight:
You put extra stress on your heart, which already is working overtime to pump increased blood volume
You put additional stress on your joints, which pregnancy hormones may already have loosened and made lax
You increase your risk of developing preeclampsia (a form of high blood pressure); a serious condition that can be life-threatening
You’ll be more likely to develop aches in your lower back
You may make labour and delivery more difficult because your baby will be big
It is, however, important that you gain about 9-14 kilos depending on your initial weight.
Second-trimester tests
Urinalysis. This test, performed at each doctor visit, measures the protein and sugar in your urine. It will detect excess protein, which can be a warning sign of preeclampsia.
Triple-marker test. This test measures a specific protein, alpha-fetoprotein or AFP, in your blood. If the AFP levels are high; it may identify a neural tube defect; if AFP levels are low (combined with abnormalities found in two other tests), this may identify Down’s syndrome. Initially, this was done in mothers above 35 years of age, but American College of obstetricians and gynecologists (2003) recommends that all pregnant women be offered second trimester maternal serum AFP screening.
Rhesus (Rh)-antibody-level test. This blood test is for rhesus-negative women. Most people have a specific protein in their blood called the Rh factor. Those who don’t are called Rh-negative. If a woman tests Rh-negative, the father of the child also should be tested for his Rh factor because problems arise when an Rh-negative woman conceives a baby with an Rh-positive man. The tests are done about halfway through the pregnancy or at once if the woman has a bleeding problem.
Ultrasound. This test uses high-frequency sound waves to visualise the unborn baby. An ultrasound examination can detect a pregnancy as early as six weeks after your last menstrual period and show the baby’s movements at approximately 12 weeks of gestational age.
Extra test for women older than 35
Amniocentesis. This tests the fluid surrounding your baby to detect chromosomal and other genetic disorders such as Down’s syndrome, haemophilia, and sickle-cell anaemia. It is usually performed on women older than 35 during their 15th to 16thweek of pregnancy and on women who have an abnormal triple-screen result.


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