NORMAL PREGNANCY INFORMATION

Understanding A Normal Pregnancy Process

This pregnancy information is presented to provide you with a general understanding about the whole pregnancy process. Getting pregnant is probably the dream of almost every married couple whether just married or those who have been trying hard – ‘struggling’ may be the more exact word – to get pregnant and give birth to healthy babies.

Before we are going to discuss the central point of this site, which is getting you pregnant in the fastest but still natural way, whatever your condition would be at the presence, it is best if I provide you with some pointers of pregnancy information on what pregnancy is all about. I am referring this pregnancy information as a normal pregnancy.

Pregnancy information #1 – Your prenatal care

Not speaking about the process of getting pregnant, I mean the fertilizing process of an ovum by a sperm champion, getting pregnant will mean starting series of visits to see your obstetrician, who will then take care of you and your coming baby throughout the entire prenatal course.

Unless you are under the supervision of a midwife who usually makes home visits, it is more likely that you will be in the care of an obstetrician, especially if you are a person that relies on professional care. The essential role of an obstetrician is to guard your pregnancy and to is able to determine in the early stage that something is going wrong with your pregnancy.

A pattern of visits to your obstetrician is every 3 – 4 week during early pregnancy which will then become more frequent as your pregnancy progresses to the more mature stage until it becomes a weekly visit during the last month.

You will probably encounter two possibilities, first, where everything is considered as a normal pregnancy or second, you may be included in the high-risk pregnancy group. A high-risk pregnancy includes hypertension, proteinuria (protein in urine), fetal growth abnormalities, ultrasound abnormality, or any other condition that will be justified by your obstetrician as high risk factors. A high-risk pregnancy will for sure need extra supervision and care.

A prenatal care will include 3 stages, which is the first, second and third trimester.

Pregnancy information #2 - The First Trimester Prenatal Care

This is the first twelve week of pregnancy or about ten weeks following a conception. Your doctor will compile all the necessary pregnancy information and documentation about your pregnancy health, general medical exams related to your pregnancy and attend to any question from your side if any.

There are no special measures that will be taken to check your health, it is all the routine stuff like checking your weight, blood pressure and a dip-stick test to check your urine whether there are signs of abnormality. The outcome is mostly like; negative vaginal bleeding, unusual vaginal discharge negative, fever negative, unusual pain or cramps negative, and no sign of other medical abnormalities.

Physical exams and laboratory checks, like culture and blood work during this trimester will provide you about your pregnancy information in the early stage whether you are included in the high-risk group or not.

Aside from the blood check and vagina cultures you might undergo an initial examination to be able to evaluate your general health and the size of your uterus as well. At this stage the doctor will not be able to hear a baby’s heartbeat yet hence the uterus size is used to indicate that the fetal growth matches the expected size of the uterus gestational age.

Your doctor will also measure your pelvis through an exam called pelvimetry which is done manually using the doctor’s hand. This is to make sure that there isn’t any problem with the space where the fetus will grow in and pass through during labor.

The blood test and other laboratory tests are meant to check any possible disease or condition that might hamper the progress of the pregnancy and health of you and your baby as well.

Such disease or condition may include anemia, the absence of Rhesus (Rh) factor, immunity against German measles or Rubella, syphilis, thyroid dysfunction, hepatitis and probable exposure to HIV which is the cause of AIDS. The vaginal culture is meant to check the possible presence of gonorrhea, Chlamydia and may be streptococcus B which is usually checked at the 28th week.

Something that should be considered is the possible sign of miscarriage. The first trimester is where miscarriage is most likely to occur. Statistics shows that up to 20% of pregnancies are ending up with miscarriage caused by genetic disorders at the conception stage.

Pregnancy information #3 - The Second Trimester Prenatal Care

This is the 12th - 24th week of pregnancy. This trimester is a sort of relieving time after the worry of miscarriage, cramps, nausea and vomiting that happened in the 1st trimester. It is best that you enjoy this time before you will get to the 3rd trimester which has its own set of worries and distress.

Your visit intervals will range about 2 – 4 weeks which depends on your doctor. Routine checks of blood pressure, body weight and urine will be exerted as usual. The doctor may examine and record the fundal height and fetal heart tones in every visit.

During this quiet period the observation will be on the general health of the mother and child.

You may as well read books on pregnancy or other pregnancy information and discuss it with your doctor to add some knowledge and perspective.

Around the 15th – 20th week you will be asked to undergo an alphafetoprotein test to check possible defect in the neural tube (Spina bifida) or Down’s syndrome. For genetic studies purposes, if you are over 35 years old (which includes you in the high-risk) you will be asked to participate in amniocentesis at the week 15 of pregnancy.

As an effect of your growing baby, which definitely needs more space, you may experience a new and strange pain that comes and goes. You also feel shortness of breath, pain in your ligaments, nerve tingling and other strange feelings that happened in this trimester.

If you have a history of a weak cervix or preterm deliveries, your doctor may be aware of such condition and will look for signs of preterm labor. Fetal movement, which is a sign of a living baby can be detected during eighteen weeks. As the pregnancy progresses the fetal movements becomes more regular from time to time.

Any decrease of fetal movement may indicate an inappropriate growth which will prompt additional ultrasound exam to determine the health of the fetus and your health as well

Pregnancy information #4 - The Third Trimester Prenatal Care

This trimester will start around the 13th – 18th week of gestation and will end around the 37th – 42nd week where your visits become more frequent. Usually it will be every 2 – 3 weeks during the 24th – 36th week, after that your visit will be weekly until the due date.

Your doctor or nurse will start to checking your cervix to observe possible changes which can indicate how the labor is about to happen.

The time of checking the cervix depends on your doctor’s discretion, but it is usually as early in the 37th week. The time limit of a normal birth should happen at the 40th week, beyond that point extra surveillance should be performed. Some practical test like the stress and non-stress test as well as an additional ultrasound test will be prudent.

In this 3rd trimester you might encounter the possibility of pregnancy related complication which is Pregnancy Induced Hypertension (PIH), in the past time known as toxemia gravidarum or pre-eclampsia. The doctor will look for the possibility sign indicating this condition.

Another check that will be conducted in this trimester is the screening of possible Gestational Diabetes, usually in the 26th week of pregnancy. While a Group-B-Streptococcus culture will be done in the 28th week.