What is a Typical Prenatal Care Schedule?
If you just found out you are pregnant, you have probably started wondering about visiting your midwife. You may have seen and expected the basics of checking a baby’s heartbeat and assessing your overall health in your prenatal appointments, but what else happens in one of our routine prenatal visits? Let’s dive in!
What happens during a typical visit?
Your prenatal visits will take place mainly in the comfort of our appointment rooms. During the start of a visit, our care team will assess your vital signs, which include your blood pressure, pulse, and weight.
They will then do a detailed examination that includes an abdominal exam and listening to your baby’s heartbeat, checking your baby’s growth and position, and discussing your general health condition, nutrition, and daily activities.
During this discussion, they will take the time to educate you about the bodily and emotional changes you may be experiencing and offer suggestions for dealing with some of the common discomforts that can arise in pregnancy.
This is also a great time to bring up any questions or concerns that you might have. It helps to note your questions before your appointment because it can be easy to forget them when you come in for your appointment.
What is a prenatal care visit schedule?
Our prenatal care schedule is similar to a typical Obstetric practice schedule.
We usually see mothers every four weeks until 28 weeks of pregnancy. After that, you need to come in every two weeks up until 36 weeks. After 36 weeks, you must come in weekly until 41 weeks or you deliver.
Is there any specific testing during these visits?
During your initial visit, it is recommended that you get a few baseline tests done; these may include your blood picture, a urine test, and blood group testing.
We do lab work at 28 weeks of pregnancy and Group Beta Strep (GBS) testing at 36 weeks.
Other than lab work, we also get ultrasounds done. During the first trimester, you get an initial scan known as the dating scan. This helps us understand how old the baby is and what we use to calculate what week of pregnancy you are in. A growth scan is done during the second trimester to track overall development. It’s also when you can learn the sex of your baby if you are interested. Two ultrasounds are the normal amount, but there are times where your midwife may recommend additional viability scans in addition to this.
How long is each visit?
One of the hallmarks of good midwifery care is taking the time to listen and get to know you. Your initial prenatal visit will last for one hour and allow us ample time to get to know each other. Each of our following visits are typically 30 minutes long, so there’s plenty of time to do a detailed exam and address any concerns that you might have. This is how we help you prepare for your birth.