Medical Care During Pregnancy
When trying hard to get pregnant, even a tell tale sign can have your hopes soaring high. However, you cannot keep rushing to your physician every time you feel that you are pregnant. Therefore, keep Pregnancy Home Test Kits handy.
Pregnancy tests are of two kinds: Home Pregnancy tests and Blood Tests. Both test the level of a hormone, human chorionic gonadotropoin, hCG, which is secreted in a woman’s body when a fertilised egg is implemented in the uterus. The level of hCG increases everyday when a woman is pregnant.
Once, you are sure that you are pregnant; it is time for you to visit a doctor for further medical tests:
Medical Tests:
When pregnant, a woman has to undergo several pregnancy tests throughout all stages of the pregnancy. These medical tests depend upon your health, baby’s growth, your age and past pregnancies. These tests are done to ensure your and your baby’s health and safety.
Following are the usual tests, which a pregnant woman has to undergo:
- Blood Test : a blood sample will be taken for various medical tests:
- blood cell count
- screening for Rh antibodies
- sexually transmitted diseases like Chlamydia, gonorrhoea, HIV, etc
- hepatitis, syphilis
- Cystic Fibrosis (this test is now even performed on women who do not have a family history of the disease).
- For previous bouts of chicken pox, small pox, and measles.
- Ultrasound : this test is also used for confirming your pregnancy. In addition, this is the first medical test a pregnant woman undergoes. This test provides you a glimpse of your growing child in your womb. The 3D ultrasound offers even higher quality imaging. Ultra sound will be performed after every few months of pregnancy depending on the growth and position of the baby or will be performed in every trimester to monitor the growth of baby.
- Chroionic Villus screening and Amniocentesis : these tests only recommended or performed on women who have conceived after the age of 35 years. It is a prenatal test done for checking few chromosomal defects and other birth defects. It is done by taking a tissue sample of the sac where foetus forms.
- Fetal Blood Sampling: this test is not recommended to all pregnant women. These tests are performed for the following:
- to verify the presence of infectious disease in the foetus, like rubella, cytomegalovirus, etc
- to perform blood count, check anaemia and low platelet count in the foetus
- to assess the presence of chromosomal abnormalities
- to confirm the presence of Down syndrome
Combined First Trimester Test : it is relatively a new test. This is one of the most accurate and precise pre natal tests.