Pregnancy Care
PRECONCEPTION COUNSELLING
Why is it important?
Improving the mother’s health before conception improves reproductive outcomes in terms of reducing maternal morbidity and preventing infant complications.
Goals of Preconception counselling :
Identify & Modify biomedical, behavioural and social risks to women’s health and her reproductive outcome.
Components of Preconception counselling :
Maternal assessment-family history, reproductive history, behaviours, social history,general physical examination Screening-Infections,genetic disorders, Hematological disorders Vaccination-Rubella,varicella,hepatitis B,Influenza Counselling.
Antenatal Care :-
Congratulations on your pregnancy as you will embark on most beautiful journey of a couple’s life. With loads of information available on internet, I would like to simplify the entire process of pregnancy and delivery . To make this journey memorable ,I would like you to concentrate on 2 plans.
PREGNANCY PLAN :
1) Consult the Gynaecologist immediately after missing periods. Getting yourself evaluated by the gynaecologist early is very important to know any risk if present
2) Know the various investigations to be done throughout the pregnancy to safeguard maternal and fetal well being.
3) Weight and diet management in pregnancy is very important and is individualized.
4) Your Gynaecologist will guide you with various changes that are expected in each trimester as well as solve any queries as they come up.
5) Get yourself educated about the danger signs
6) Timely monitoring and intervention is the key to healthy mother and child at the end of those beautiful 9 months.
7) Get ready mentally and physically for labour pains and delivery process.
BIRTH PLAN :
The day you give birth is one of the most important of your life. Creating a birth plan ahead of time helps you make decisions about how you want your labor and delivery to be, and lets others know your wishes.
Take help of you of your gynaecologist to decide the mode of delivery, fetal monitoring, posture, pain management during delivery, rooming in with baby, breastfeeding .
Creating a birth plan empowers you to become informed of all your options during labor.
However, Be Flexible: While you can’t guarantee how things will unfold, you can request preferences for you and your baby’s care during birth.
High Risk :
What are High-Risk Pregnancy ?
Reasons that a pregnancy may be considered high risk include :
1) Maternal AgeWomen who will be over age 35 when their baby is due are at greater risk of complications than those between their late teens and early 30s.
2) Obesity
3) Medical conditions that exist before pregnancy. Conditions such as high blood pressure; lung, kidney, or heart problems; diabetes; autoimmune disease; sexually transmitted diseases (STDs); or chronic infections such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
4) Medical conditions that occur during pregnancy. Even if you are healthy when you become pregnant, it is possible to develop or be diagnosed with problems during pregnancy that can affect you and your baby. Two of the more common pregnancy-related problems are:
• Preeclampsia is a syndrome that includes high blood pressure, urinary protein, and swelling; it can be dangerous or even fatal for the mother or baby if not treated.
• Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that develops during pregnancy. Women with gestational diabetes may have healthy pregnancies and babies if they follow the treatment plan from their health-care provider. Usually the diabetes resolves after delivery. However women with gestational diabetes are at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes
5) Pregnancy-related issues. Often a pregnancy is classified as high risk because of issues that arise from the pregnancy itself and that have little to do with the mother’s health. These include:
• Premature labor is labor that begins before 37 weeks of pregnancy. There are factors that place women at higher risk of preterm labour such as certain infections, a shortened cervix, or previous preterm birth.
• Multiple births : Multiple pregnancies, which are more common as women are using more infertility treatments, increase the risk of premature labor, gestational diabetes, and pregnancy-induced high blood pressure.
• Placenta previa is a condition in which the placenta covers the cervix. The condition can cause bleeding, especially if a woman has contractions
• Fetal problems, which can sometimes be seen on ultrasound. Approximately 2% to 3% of all babies have a minor or major structural problem in development. Sometimes there may be a family history of fetal problems, but other times these problems are completely unexpected.