The Importance of Prenatal Visits

Dr. Maura Quinian: So how's everything? Kitty Ahmed: Good! Dr. Maura Quinian: Baby is moving? Kitty Ahmed: Baby is moving like crazy. Dr. Maura Quinian: Any cramps, bleeding? Kitty Ahmed: No, nothing bad like that. Dr. Maura Quinian: I was just doing a standard third trimester visit for her. She has got an uncomplicated pregnancy and this is just a routine of visit. Are you getting uncomfortable or not too much? Kitty Ahmed: Yes! Very extremely, it's like right under my ribs. So, like even sitting like this is like okay, you know there is this brick wall under my bones. Dr. Maura Quinian: It'll get worse as you get bigger. Kitty Ahmed: Yes! Dr. Maura Quinian: And then right close to that when the baby drops then it will have a little more room. Kitty Ahmed: Right! Dr. Maura Quinian: When the head gets lowered your bones. Kitty Ahmed: When does it actually drop? Is that 27 weeks? Dr. Maura Quinian: Above that. For a first baby it drops a little bit later because everything is so strong, holding it up, but with the second baby because you can't have more room the head will drop a little sooner. So, probably more like 36 weeks. It does seem like what all we do in all these visits doing these routine things but they do pick up some findings before they get serious. What can happen is that something that could be treated would be not picked up. If a patient has elevated blood pressure but no symptoms from it and she waits until she has symptoms by that point the baby could have restricted growth. There are all those sorts of things that can happen. If the baby is not growing but she doesn't come to be measured there are tests that we could do to see why the baby is not growing to see if we can correct some of those things. See if she needs to be delivered early for that reason instead of coming, missing some visits and coming with the dead baby that could have been prevented. Sounds good. Kitty Ahmed: Okay! Dr. Maura Quinian: The baby might be breech, which has no significant, we have plenty of time to cope her up, but usually I listen below your belly-button because that's in baby's head down that's it, where the heart is, usually below. So when it's at the belly button or above it's usually sign of baby's breech, just for that moment but all these big movements could turn around.