Prenatal Care, Essay Example

Prenatal refers to the period between conception and giving birth. This is the pregnancy period in which a lot of attendance and care is taken for the woman awaiting birth to ensure the wellbeing of the child to be born and the mother. Basically, staying healthy is the main part of prenatal.

There are various operations and tests carried out by doctors during the appointments within the prenatal period and patients behave differently towards these tests when being attended. One of the screening tests carried out is the alphafetoprotein (AFP) test. It is mainly done for screening complications or problems like spinal Bifida and to help in finding out babies who suffer from neural tube diseases i.e. NTD commonly referred to as Down syndrome and it’s done between the 14^th and the 17^th week of pregnancy.

Another critical test taken during the prenatal is that of the ultrasounds. It helps in screening for genetic defects as well as predicting the weight of the fetal. Prenatal testing can be exciting and at same time very scaring and disturbing to the patient. Some women are so positive about knowing the status of their babies to be. It however gets complicated as the patient does not know what to expect from the tests. Sometimes it’s very difficult for the doctors to give the test results especially where they are negative. Some patients even go to the extent of breaking down in tears and worse of even faint after testing positive for downs test. It becomes completely difficult for the patient to interpret the results, details and the decisions outlined by the doctor and very hard to accept and deal with them.

Some of frequently asked questions by the doctors and the patient are based on the body changes and transformation and feeding habits of the expectant mother. For instance, a doctor may ask whether the patient experiences upper-abdominal pains or less frequent urination than in normal conditions. Some of these questions are meant to identify any ailments of the patient that she might not have discovered. For instance, those conditions signify that the patient might be suffering from preeclampsia, a condition of extreme blood pressure which can be fatal to the baby or even to the mother. Despite the mixed reactions and tension involved in the prenatal tests, the importance of taking these tests cannot be overemphasized all for the good of the baby to be born and the mother.