Antenatal care By Rebecca Smith

Index What is antenatal care? Antenatal appointments Your first visit 10 facts about your baby! Ultrasound Scan pictures Information

What is antenatal care? Antenatal care is the care you receive from healthcare professionals during your pregnancy. You will be offered appointments with a midwife or doctor.

Antenatal appointments If you're expecting your first child, you'll have up to 10 antenatal appointments. If you've had a baby before, you'll have around seven antenatal appointments. Under certain circumstances, for example if you develop a medical condition, you may have more.

Your first visit Your first visit with your midwife or GP is the appointment when you tell them that you're pregnant. At this first visit, you will be given information about: folic acid and vitamin D supplements nutrition, diet and food hygiene lifestyle factors that may affect your health or the health of your baby, such as smoking, recreational drug use and drinking alcohol antenatal screening tests

10 facts about your baby! 1. Your heart grows. Progesterone softens the joints. Your ribcage stretches out and, as your uterus grows, everything else in your body shifts about. Organs, such as the heart and live, enlarge too, due to their extra workload. 2. Your bones soften High levels of the hormones oestrogen and relaxing cause ligaments throughout your body to relax, including those in your back. The extra strain on the muscles and joints of the lower back area can cause back pain. 3. Your body can swell anywhere Extra fluid circulating can sometimes cause swelling (oedema) throughout your whole body, but more commonly in the ankles due to interstitial fluid building up.

4. Your skin changes Hormones mean skin can dry out. Extra collagen in your skin tears when it stretches, causing stretchmark's. They won't go after the birth but may fade. 5. Blue veins appear Some people are genetically predisposed to varicose veins, some aren't. Light exercise and support tights may help. 6. Your womb holds a pint of water At the start of pregnancy, your uterus is the size of a small Conference pear. By the end of the nine months it's more like an oversized watermelon, holding a baby and at least a pint of water, so it's not surprising you feel twinges as it grows, especially as it will be touching the bottom of your ribs. At weeks you may feel slight pain caused by some ligaments beginning to stretch. 7 Your hair's thicker Your hair becomes glossy and thicker due to the oestrogen receptors it contains. It is thicker because growth has slowed down and hair loss is reduced. 8. You'll need the loo more During your first trimester you'll need the loo more often as your uterus expands onto your bladder. Higher progesterone levels and tubes from your kidneys being swollen and dilated mean you're more prone to urinary problems. 9. You're more stretchy To prepare your body for childbirth, the hormone, relaxing, reduces cartilage and ligament density, so you can stretch parts of your body a lot more than normal. 10. Your hands tingle Numbness and tingling may be a sign of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome - pressure on a nerve where it passes into the hand at the wrist. Anyone can get it, but you're more at risk in pregnancy. It usually disappears after birth.

Ultrasound An ultrasound scan is used to see and hear your baby in the womb. The midwife or doctor puts a gel on your belly to get a smooth bond with the skin. baby/pages/ultrasound-anomaly-baby-scans-pregnant.aspx For more information follow the link:

Scan pictures. Original scan 3D scan 4D scan

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