Pregnancy is one of the happiest events in a women's life. From the ancient times it has been considered as a blessing for the family. Proper preparation for pregnancy as well as care during the pregnancy and afterwards will contribute towards a better and happier pregnancy. Having a healthy, happier and confident mother will help reduce problems associated with pregnancy.
Once you are married and expecting a pregnancy it is vital to read up on the subject and prepare mentally to go through a 9 months of pregnant life. Reading up would not be much of a problem as there are many resources online on how to prepare for a pregnancy and important things you should look out once you are pregnant.
Once you are mentally prepared, next step would be to register at an antenatal clinic, get your height, weight, blood sugar, blood pressure checked. At the antenatal clinic it is important to mention if you have been diagnosed with any medical conditions such as heart diseases, hypertension or if you are on any drug treatments. It is important that you bring all your medical records to the clinic at the first visit. If you have any problem that can complicate a pregnancy, the health care provider will provide you with options you have in order to continue with a pregnancy.
Once everything is checked out, you will be started on folic acid supplements while you are expecting a pregnancy. At the same time it should be noted that with some contraceptive methods such as DMPA (depot medroxy progesterone acetate) you will not gain fertility as soon as you stop taking the injections. Thus it might take some time to get fertile. But with methods such as Oral contraceptive pills, fertility is gained soon after stopping the pill.
Next step would be to diagnose pregnancy. First sign of being pregnant is the missed period. It is important to mark the date which you had your last menstrual period. This is easy if you maintain a diary with dates marked. This become important to detect the missed period soon as well as to date the pregnancy properly.
Once you have missed a period, you can confirm the pregnancy by using a urine HCG test kit. Once the pregnancy is confirmed you can visit your antenatal clinic and get registered. At the clinic it is important to confirm pregnancy by an Ultra sound scan and to date the pregnancy. Dating is of utmost important to calculate the expected date of delivery so that we can expect the baby to be born on certain range of dates. Thus mother can be monitored frequently and give necessary care closer to the dates of delivery.
Posted in: Antenatal Care,Child Birth,Pregnancy,Tests
