prenatal care

Prenatal clinics provide a number of elements. There is, first, the care of the pregnant woman, especially if she is in a vulnerable group likely to develop some complication during the last few weeks of pregnancy and subsequent delivery. Many potential hazards, such as diabetes…

Good prenatal care has been linked to reduced infant mortality. Ideally, prenatal care should begin as early in the pregnancy as possible, with visits to a health care provider every 4 weeks during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy, every 2 to 3 weeks for the…

…is a nonmedical assistant in prenatal care, labour, and sometimes postnatal care. The term is derived from the Greek word for “female slave.”

…most commonly used to examine fetuses in utero in order to ascertain size, position, or abnormalities. Ultrasound is also used to provide images of the heart, the liver, the kidneys, the gallbladder, the breasts, the eyes, and major blood vessels. It also can be used to diagnose

Prenatal screening is performed if there is a family history of inherited disease, the mother is at an advanced age, a previous child had a chromosomal abnormality, or there is an ethnic indication of risk. Parents can be tested before or after conception…

Prenatal diagnosis of congenital cardiovascular abnormalities is still at an early stage. The most promising technique is ultrasonography, used for many years to examine the fetus in utero. The increasing sophistication of equipment has made it possible to examine the heart and the great vessels…

The prenatal care and instruction of pregnant mothers to reduce birth defects and problem deliveries was introduced about 1900 and was thereafter rapidly adopted throughout the world. Beginning with the development of hormonal contraceptive pills in the 1950s, obstetrician-gynecologists have also become increasingly responsible for regulating…

) Improved prenatal care may reduce the size of another group of intellectually disabled individuals whose problem stems from brain damage sustained during fetal life. However, the number of unknown causes in other cases of intellectual disability is still considerable.