Antenatal care – The most essential care for pregnant woman

by | Dec 1, 2020 | Research | 0 comments

What is antenatal care? Antenatal care (pre-birth care) often abbreviated as ANC is a special treatment designed to cater for the wellbeing of the pregnant woman and the pregnancy, this treatment span for throughout the period of pregnancy. Once you are confirmed pregnant, the safest thing on the line is to arrange for antenatal care.

Why ANTENATAL care?

As good as the condition, the most suitable answer is just to monitor, examine and determine the safety of the expectant mother and the baby. Below are few benefits of antenatal care.

  1. To detect any congenital deformity
  2. To monitor the growth of the baby
  3. To assess the pelvic size
  4. To monitor the foetus orientation
  5. To recommend safest delivery option
  6. To determine the type of pregnancy
  7. To detect the foetus orientation
  8. To predict the due date

Necessary ANTENATAL test

Summarily, a good antenatal care offers the following:

  1. Weight and height checks in pregnancy
  2. Gestational diabetes
  3. Anaemia
  4. Blood group and rhesus status
  5. Screening for HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B
  6. Blood tests in pregnancy
  7. Abdominal palpation
  8. Blood pressure tests in pregnancy
  9. Antenatal urine tests

Likely discussions during ANC

During antenatal care, we scan, test and discuss at length with our pregnant woman, the utmost reason is to keep track on the wellness, safety and best delivery option. The discussion could be:

  1. Do you have any health risk as a pregnant woman?
  2. What you are expected to do in bid of having safe delivery?
  3. Have you been experiencing any discomfort lately?
  4. You are informed of your trimester
  5. Health talk on unhealthy medication during pregnancy
  6. Exam your cervical screening and keep you posted
  7. Cross-check your blood pressure, heartbeat and even the baby’s sound
  8. Check through your physical symptoms that may be a concerned
  9. Teach and counsel on the sex pattern between you and your hubby
  10. Advice you on the necessary diet inclusion and workload

Factors associated with utilization of antenatal care

As potent as antenatal care, the utilization of the service is worrisome as recent indications show the high number of birth defect which are arguably correctable, we are therefore compelled to highlight some of the perceived misconceptions among the pregnant women which might have accounted for poor utilization.

  1. Women’s education: This cut across all age brackets, the backwardness in the system and outright lack of useful educational civilization has posed more danger to the safety of the baby. Many pregnant women are still ridden in the hood of no need for antenatal care.
  2. Socio-economic status: In country like ours, this cannot be over-emphasized as there is stink of poor socio-economic status on almost all sectors. However, the safety of your baby and even the mother leads the pack irrespective of economic degradation.
  3. Previous pregnancy complications: Obviously, this cause a noticeable difference in the use of ANC, the woman who had previously had a miscarriage or stillbirth despite passing through a thorough ANC are so soon discouraged. Meanwhile, our medical expert counsel you not to lose hope, some other underlying factors that might have led to the miscarriages. At ALTH, we serve ultimately.
  4. Quality of care: The quality of previous ANC affects the readiness of many women in presenting themselves for another ANC, some venue might lack well trained and versed personnel, the technology might be obsolete among others. We kindly advise you to check us out to have a better service.