Antenatal Care
There are three stages of caring for an expecting mother: prenatal, antenatal, postnatal care. This is essential to ensure smooth pregnancy and labour and to keep the mother healthy after giving birth. This care is a combined effort between the doctor and the expectant couple. Here are a few things to keep in mind if you are expecting an addition to your family.
Antenatal Care and Assessment has been a revelation ensuring that a woman enjoys a safe and healthy pregnancy sans any complications. There are regular health check-ups, diagnostic and screening tests and prenatal counseling for the pregnant women and their families. The initiatives have been truly noteworthy, bringing about a significant reduction in the incidences of miscarriages and other pregnancy-related complications.
What does Antenatal Care and Assessment include?
Each trimester brings about changes that need care and attention. The Antenatal Care involves assessing and guiding a pregnant woman and their loved ones as the pregnancy progresses through each trimester.
The program aims at identifying the conditions that may pose a threat to the maternal and fetal health during pregnancy and work towards eliminating it.
Medical conditions such as anemia, HIV infection, Sexually Transmitted infections, stress, and fatigue can spell doom, affecting the pregnancy beyond imagination. Thus, time and again, a pregnant woman is screened for the mentioned complications.
The diet can play a crucial role during pregnancy. A pregnant woman should eat a nutritionally enriched diet as the fetus receives the nutrients directly from the mother. Antenatal care lays great emphasis on the diet of the pregnant woman.
De-worming and immunization programs are carried out to immunize the mother and the baby against harmful infections, including, tetanus and malaria.
Antenatal care is a complete package that includes prenatal as well as postnatal care and assessment so that the mother and the baby enjoy good health.
Pregnancy brings about a new phase in the life of couples. While most couples accept the changes graciously, many find it difficult to cope with the situation.
