prenatal care definition?

Prenatal Care
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Prenatal care is the health care you get while you are pregnant. It includes your checkups and prenatal testing. Prenatal care can help keep you and your baby healthy. It lets your health care provider spot health problems early. Early treatment can cure many problems and prevent others.

Your doctor or midwife will give you a schedule for your prenatal visits. If you are over 35 years old or your pregnancy is high risk because of health problems like diabetes or high blood pressure, your doctor or midwife will probably want to see you more often. You can also expect to see your health care provider more often as your due date gets closer.

Dept. of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health
Start Here

Have a Healthy Pregnancy Easy-to-Read (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion)
Medical Care during Pregnancy (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
Pre-Pregnancy Care and Prenatal Care From the National Institutes of Health (Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) Also in Spanish
Pregnancy Check-Ups: Healthy Start for Mom and Baby From the National Institutes of Health (National Institutes of Health) Also in Spanish
Prenatal Care (Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Women's Health) Also in Spanish
Prenatal Care Checkup (March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation) Also in Spanish
Taking Care of You and Your Baby While You're Pregnant (American Academy of Family Physicians) Also in Spanish
What Can I Do to Promote a Healthy Pregnancy? From the National Institutes of Health (Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) Also in Spanish

Related Issues

Pregnancy and Nutrition: MedlinePlus Health Topic From the National Institutes of Health (National Library of Medicine) Also in Spanish
Women of Size and Pregnancy (American College of Nurse-Midwives) - PDF

Specifics

Prenatal Care: First Trimester Visits (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)
Prenatal Care: Second Trimester Visits (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)
Prenatal Care: Third Trimester Visits (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)
What Happens during Prenatal Visits? From the National Institutes of Health (Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) Also in Spanish

Statistics and Research

PeriStats: Perinatal Statistics (March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation)

Clinical Trials

ClinicalTrials.gov: Prenatal Care From the National Institutes of Health (National Institutes of Health)

Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)

Article: Transforming women's and providers' experience of care for improved outcomes: A...
Article: Practice change intervention to improve antenatal care addressing alcohol consumption during...
Article: Effectiveness of checklist-based box system intervention (CBBSI) versus routine care on...
Prenatal Care -- see more articles

Find an Expert

Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Women's Health Also in Spanish
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development From the National Institutes of Health Also in Spanish
Find an Ob-Gyn (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists)
March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation Also in Spanish

Patient Handouts

Pregnancy care (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
Prenatal care in your first trimester (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
Prenatal care in your second trimester (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
Prenatal care in your third trimester (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish

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Prenatal Care
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MEDICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA

Pregnancy care
Prenatal care in your first trimester
Prenatal care in your second trimester
Prenatal care in your third trimester

Related Health Topics

Fetal Health and Development
Folic Acid
Health Problems in Pregnancy
Pregnancy
Pregnancy and Drug Use
Prenatal Testing

National Institutes of Health
The primary NIH organization for research on Prenatal Care is the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Other Languages
Find health information in languages other than English on Prenatal Care
NIH MedlinePlus Magazine

How to Stay Healthy During Pregnancy

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