If you have been a fairly healthy woman, you may not have needed many visits to a doctor, nurse practitioner, or midwife as an adult. Those visits were probably for yearly check ups or for the treatment of minor illnesses.
If that is true, you may wonder why healthy pregnant women have so many scheduled visits even when everything is progressing normally during a pregnancy. We are going to talk about why these visits are so important, what happens during the visits, and how they change depending on the age of your growing baby.
For most women, pregnancy is a very normal phase of life. We will discuss complications of pregnancy in other articles but for now we are considering pregnancies that progress normally from conception to birth. Appointments for prenatal care are less frequent in the beginning of your pregnancy and then more often as you get closer to the birth of your baby. The schedule for routine visits is listed below with information about what you can expect:
- In the first trimester (until the end of the 12th week) you will have one visit to confirm the pregnancy, establish a relationship with your provider, obtain important lab tests (we will discuss this in another article), an early ultrasound to date the pregnancy when appropriate, and an assessment of your overall health. After this initial visit you will usually return every four weeks. At these return visits you will have a weight check, listen to the baby’s heartbeat, have genetic screening if desired at the appropriate times, have your blood pressure checked and you may be asked to provide a urine specimen. These visits should also include information about warning signs, healthy habits, and normal changes of pregnancy.
- During your second trimester (13-27 weeks) you usually continue to visit your provider every 4 weeks until the end of this trimester. Beginning at 28 weeks and until approximately 36 weeks, your visits will increase to every 2 weeks. Between 24 and 28 weeks you will be asked to take an important test to measure your blood sugar after a sugar load to screen for gestational diabetes (see article on gestation diabetes). Your provider will continue to monitor your weight, blood pressure, the baby’s heart rate, and any symptoms that you may be experiencing.
- The third trimester (28-41 weeks) starts out with visits every 2 weeks until the last month of your pregnancy at which time they increase to every week. This increase in appointments is important because you will be assessed for complications that occur more commonly during the last month of the pregnancy. Things like preterm labor, blood pressure issues and other symptoms specific to the third trimester. At 35-37 weeks your provider will obtain a vaginal swab for an organism called Group B Strep (see article on GBS). And depending on symptoms of cramping or contractions, you may also have vaginal exams during this last month to check for changes in your cervix consistent with labor.
