unit two-antenatal care and preparation for birth

• antenatal care if the care given to the mom and unborn baby during the pregnancy and ahead of birth
• the purpose of antenatal care is that you can carry out routine tests and check to make sure everything is okay they also carry out screening and diagnostic checks it also provides antenatal classes
• what's a midwife and what do they do 


  they are experts in normal pregnancy an din birth

  they help with vagial birth without the need of interventions

  they help during labor/birth

  stays in touch for a month/ 28 days after baby born
• what's the responsibilities of a midwife

  they provide antenatal care-parenting classes, clinical examinations and screening

  they help identify high risks pregnancy's

  montering the women while supporting them during labour

  they help teach new moms how to feed care and birth their baby's
• what type of medical staff are there to help during pregnancy

  hospital midwife

  community midwife

  independent midwife

  obstetriticain

  general practitioner
• what is a hospital midwife 


  based in hospital centre in a midwife led unit
• what is a community midwife 


  see pregnant women at home or in specialised clinics
• whats an independent midwife

  work privately outside of the NHS usually work for women who intend to have home births
• whats an obstetrician 


  they work with mothers who are considered high risk and more complicated pregnancy's would be taken over by an obstetrician

  there roles include delivery and performing a caesarean section

  they also work with women who have a pre-existing acute or chronic medical disease what could cause the mom to have complications during pregnancy and birth
• what is a general practitioner

  usually mothers first contact with medical professional after posotive pregnancy test- gp could conform the pregnancy and book the mom into a maternity system
• whats the roles of a gp/ general practioner

  answering any questions

  discussing any issues

  treating mother for non pregnancy related problems

  responding with emergency concerns
• why is a baby's heart beat checked during a midwife session 


  to check that the baby is alive and not distressed and have a regular healthy heart beat is there
• the blood pressure is a routine test that is took to make sure there is no raised blood pressure as high blood pressure can cause a condition called pre-eclampsia which needs special treatment
• blood tests are carried out to check for ant possible problems such as anamia, blood group, rhesus factor, rubella, high blood sugar, HIV
• urine test are checked for several things including levels of protein, glucose and ketones, high level of protein can indicate a urine infection and high levels of protein in urine can indicate pre-clamisa
• weight check it gets took at the first antenatal appointment and this is used as a baseline weight is monitored there should be a steady weight line that should gain steady throughout pregnancy weight loss could be an indicator that baby has stopped growing and too much weight gain icould be an indication of preeclampsia
• screening tests- are carried out to estimate the level of risk of the baby being born with a particular disease or condition or for those who are at risk of being developing the disease
• diagnostic test- test are carried out to diagnose and confirm whether or not an individual has a disease
• a dating scan is carried out at 12 weeks this will estimate when the baby is due it can check how many weeks pregnant the women, see if the women is accepting more then one baby and the babies development
• anomaly scan is done at twenty weeks it checks the physical development of the baby you cant see heart defects are more difficult to see in this but you can see more rare condition like cleft lip and Edwards syndrome
• a nuchal fold translucency scan is a screening test for down syndrome offered to the mother at 12 weeks it access the chance of the baby having down syndrome
• the triple test is a screening test carried out at 10 to 14 weeks it shows the likeliness of having down, Edwards and Patau's syndrome
• non invasive prenatal testing identifies chromosomes deficiency it can be carried out from week ten which is one of the earliest test it is an accurate test that does not carry the risk of miscarriage
• amniocentesis is a procedure that takes a sample of the amniotic fluid which is then tested for conditions but this test carry's a risk of miscarriage