Prenatal care is extremely important during pregnancy. It can boil down to life or death in certain circumstances. Scheduling and attending regular prenatal appointments are important for ensuring the health of both the mother and the baby. While some appointments are quick and can seem pointless; this is actually a good thing. Quick and smooth appointments mean that mom and baby are healthy and growing perfectly!
Upon arriving to your prenatal appointment, you will have your weight and vitals checked. This is to monitor your weight gain and fluid gain to ensure it is appropriate for the week/trimester you are in. If you aren't gaining enough weight, or the opposite, where you are gaining excessive amounts of weight, this can mean you have health issues. The baby may have a fluid dysregulation, poor circulation etc. Your blood pressure will be taken which can alert to various types of health issues if it is out of normal range.
For example, if your blood pressure is too high it came be a cause for concern for preeclampsia. Preeclampsia is a life threatening and exceedingly high blood pressure during pregnancy that can cause protein in your urine, organ damage, preterm labor, and even death if not treated or monitored promptly. You wouldn't know this was an issue if you did not attend your prenatal appointments.
Your healthcare provider will monitor your growing belly to ensure it is growing with your fetus. Blood sugar will be tested during a glucose control test to ensure your body can regulate sugar and produce insulin which can also affect your baby. Gestational Diabetes can arise during pregnancy and can affect your baby and increase their chances of diabetes occurring in their life. This is usually an issue resulting from the placenta (your baby's lifeline). You may be advised to check your blood sugar at home or even take insulin.
Attending regular prenatal appointments ensures the safety of the growing fetus and reduces the risks of complications. Education is provided, questions will be answered, and the fetus will be monitored by an ultrasound at various intervals throughout pregnancy. Their heartbeat will be monitored as well. Medications can be prescribed if needed, and other health issues can be addressed. In the first trimester, you will attend these appointments every month. Second trimester into third will be every 2-4 weeks and into the later part of the third trimester you will attend them every week leading up to delivery.
In conclusion, attending prenatal appointments ensures the health of the mother and the baby. Monitoring of both can be completed during each trimester and testing's will be performed to improve health. The most important takeaway is to attend every single appointment because it can detect a health issue occurring and ensure the safety of the mother and baby. A short and quick appointment is a good thing!
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