What is prenatal care

To put it simply, from the moment you confirm your pregnancy to before the baby is delivered, the total of all physiological monitoring, medical intervention, life guidance, and psychological support for the pregnant mother and fetus is really not only counted when going to the hospital for prenatal check-ups.

Last week, I met a little girl in the clinic who was just 7 weeks pregnant. She came in holding a two-striped pregnancy test paper and asked if it would be enough to draw blood on time and do a routine B-ultrasound. I looked through the nursing records of mothers of the same gestational age, which clearly stated how many doses of folic acid she should take every day, whether she could drink half a cup of coffee occasionally, and how to replenish electrolytes if she vomited badly. These detailed instructions were all within the scope of prenatal care.

Nowadays, everyone’s understanding of prenatal care is actually quite different, and there is also a lot of controversy: some young mothers are very cautious, and they want to go to the hospital for check-ups every week as soon as they get pregnant. Various supplements are piled half a table high, and they don’t even dare to leave the door, for fear of causing fetal infection.； There are also some elders who always feel that "no one did prenatal check-ups before, so they still gave birth" and don't need to be too particular about it. Even key screenings such as Tang screening are advised not to be done by younger generations.

We have seen both of these ideas in clinical practice. A month ago, a pregnant mother who was 10 weeks pregnant was too anxious. She came to have her blood drawn every three days to check for progesterone. As a result, the progesterone dropped quickly because she was not well rested. We adjusted the monitoring frequency for her and asked her to go downstairs for a half-hour walk after dinner every day. She did not have to keep looking at the number, but it stabilized in two weeks.； There was also a pregnant mother who was 34 weeks pregnant and had never had a fetal heart rate monitor before. When she arrived, the fetal movement had been reduced for a whole day. It was found that the umbilical cord had been wrapped around the neck for two weeks and there were signs of hypoxia. The emergency was taken out before the danger was saved. If routine monitoring could be done in advance, there would be no need to suffer this risk.

In fact, prenatal care is a bit like the comprehensive insurance you get before driving a long distance. You don’t have to wait for the car to break down before repairing it. Checking the tire pressure regularly, predicting which sections of road are prone to traffic jams in advance, and preparing some motion sickness medicine and mineral water are all part of the insurance: for example, setting the frequency of daily blood pressure monitoring for pregnant mothers with a history of gestational hypertension, and adjusting the amount of salt in the diet.； Teach a pregnant mother who has severe edema how to massage and how to rest her feet while sleeping to relieve the edema. ； We provide emotional counseling for pregnant mothers who always have insomnia and shed tears secretly, and even teach you in advance how to count fetal movements and distinguish between real and false contractions. These seemingly inconspicuous things are all part of prenatal care.

Many people used to think that prenatal care was a matter for doctors and nurses. In fact, it is not the case. If you pay attention to weight changes every day, count fetal movements on time, and seek medical advice promptly if you feel uncomfortable, you are also providing yourself with prenatal care. The core of it is to make the ten-month pregnancy process more stable and ensure that both adults and children are safe.