Your doctor or midwife will give you a requisition for comprehensive blood work to assess your complete blood count red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, which can indicate anemia or infections and blood type in case you are Rh negative, which can affect your pregnancy.
You will also have routine public health screenings through blood work for rubella, syphilis, hepatitis B and HIV. How prenatal counselling can help you through pregnancy Your healthcare provider may order additional blood work based on your lifestyle and health history, such as checking your chickenpox status and thyroid levels.
Based on your ethnic background and other risk factors, they may also screen for diseases such as sickle cell disease and thalassemia. If you have other STIs, such as genital herpes, this is important information to share as it may affect how you deliver if you have an outbreak near your due date, you may need to have a C-section to protect the baby from infection. Depending on your province or territory, you may be offered an optional first-trimester screening to determine your risk of having a baby with Down syndrome or trisomy This involves a blood test and an ultrasound at around 11 to 14 weeks.
Your medical provider will counsel you on the reasons for undergoing this testing. When will your next ultrasound be? Knowing that you will be offered this screening test beforehand can be helpful. Your first prenatal visit may be one of the longest you'll have during your pregnancy — and definitely the most comprehensive. Not only will there be tests and information-gathering, there will be lots of time spent on questions and answers.
There will also be plenty of advice given, from what to eat or not , what prenatal vitamins to take, and how much to exercise. Here are the details on when to go for your first pregnancy appointment, how to prepare for it and what actually happens while you're there.
As soon as you have a positive result on a home pregnancy test, call your practitioner to schedule an appointment. Good prenatal care is one of the most important steps in having a healthy pregnancy and baby. The first prenatal appointment usually takes place in the second month, between week 6 and week 8 of pregnancy.
Be sure to call as soon as you suspect you're pregnant and have taken a pregnancy test. Some practitioners will be able to fit you in right away, but others may have waits of several weeks or longer. Regardless of when that first appointment is scheduled, start acting pregnant once you get that positive result at home such as by taking a prenatal vitamin , following a healthy diet , switching to mocktails and skipping certain off-limits foods like raw fish and deli meat.
You may be familiar with the basics, but don't hesitate to call your practitioner's office if you need to brush up. And if the wait is of concern because you feel your pregnancy may be high-risk because of a chronic condition or a history of miscarriages, for example , check in with the office to see if you can come in earlier. Once the date is on your calendar, do a little prep work to make the most of your visit. Whether bought over the counter or taken at a doctor's office, all urine pregnancy tests work by screening for a hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin hCG.
When a fertilized egg implants itself in your uterus, your body starts to produce hCG. You can detect trace levels of hCG from as early as eight days after ovulation. This means some women can get a positive pregnancy test several days before their period starts. The blood test your doctor performs can detect pregnancy earlier than a urine pregnancy test.
The drawback is that it usually takes 24 hours to get results. While the presence of sugar in the urine is normal in pregnancy, high levels could be a sign of diabetes. Your doctor may also order a urine culture, another test that detects bacteria in your urine. If the test shows bacteria in your urine, you will be treated with antibiotics. Depending on your risk factors and how far along you are in your pregnancy, your doctor may use a urine test to check for a condition called preeclampsia — a type of high blood pressure that can occur during pregnancy.
Depending on how far along you are in your pregnancy, your doctor may perform an ultrasound to measure the embryo or fetus to establish or confirm gestational age. Ultrasounds to confirm gestational age are the most accurate during the first trimester. Your physical exam may include a pelvic exam, where your provider will check your pelvis and uterus to make sure they are healthy.
A pelvic exam is a physical examination of your pelvic organs, including your external genitals vulva and internal organs, including the vagina, cervix, and uterus. Your doctor may also administer a Pap smear, where they will collect cells from your cervix using a swab and a tool called a speculum.
Pap smears are used to find changes in the cells of your cervix that could lead to cancer. At the end of your first prenatal visit, your doctor will explain any additional testing that may be needed. You may consider having additional testing done if you are at high risk of having a baby with a genetic or chromosomal condition, like Down syndrome or cystic fibrosis.
Your doctor may also recommend or prescribe a prenatal vitamin, which is a multivitamin made specifically for pregnant people. These vitamins have folic acid in them, a vitamin that can protect your baby from certain birth defects. Your doctor will also tell you about the discomforts you may experience during pregnancy and warn you about the symptoms that require immediate medical treatment.
At the end of your appointment, your doctor will instruct you to schedule follow-up prenatal care checkups to ensure the health of you and your baby throughout your pregnancy. In your first trimester, you will have a prenatal visit every month. In your second and third trimesters, these appointments will increase in frequency. If you have or are at risk of complications during pregnancy, your doctor may want to see you more frequently.
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