What to expect at each doctor appointment
Once you discover that you are pregnant you will want to make an appointment with your OB/GYN. They may want to confirm your pregnancy with a urine pregnancy test. Then they will draw blood to check your HCG levels and your progesterone. They will most likely test these for a few visits to make sure your HCG is doubling every few days and that your progesterone levels are not declining. This helps to confirm a viable pregnancy.
At your first visit your doctor or midwife will perform a pelvic exam and do a PAP test if you haven’t had one recently. They will do a breast exam also and take a medical history. Make sure you let them know about any medications you are taking. At this first visit, your physician will prescribe prenatal vitamins for you to take throughout your pregnancy.
After the first prenatal visit, you will se your doctor once a month for subsequent visits until you are about 30 weeks. Then you will have appointments every two weeks until the 36th week. Starting from 36 weeks until you go in to labor, you will see your doctor weekly.
Most regular visits will include testing your urine for blood, protein and sugars. Your blood pressure will be monitored and the size of your uterus will be measured. Sometime during your second trimester you will have a glucose tolerance test to check for gestational diabetes. All you have to do is drink the glucose which tastes like flat soda and have your blood drawn.
With most healthy pregnancies, there won’t be many ultrasounds. You may have one around 6 or 8 weeks to check for the fetal heartbeat. It’s usually after seeing the healthy baby on the ultrasound at this appointment that parents feel confident enough to tell family and friends the good news, they are expecting. Another common ultrasound is done at around 12 weeks.
The nuchal sac of your baby is measured which will help determine if your baby has Down’s syndrome. Additional genetic referred to as the AFP and triple screen testing is done between 16 and 18 weeks to check for any other genetic abnormalities. These tests don’t have to be done. They are completely voluntary and you can decline them if you want. If you are over 35 your doctor may encourage you to have amniocentesis done. By taking a sample of your amniotic fluid and sending to a lab for analysis, your doctor will be able to tell you for sure if there are any genetic problems with your baby.
It will also determine the baby’s gender. Your “big” ultrasound is done around 18-20 weeks. This is what many parents get excited for because this is the time that you can usually find out what sex your baby is so long as your baby is cooperating. At this ultrasound they will also take different measurements of your baby and check all of the major organs. After this ultrasound, many women will not have anymore unless there’s a problem.
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