Prenatal care: Precursor for healthy pregnancy

Dealing with pregnancy is made easy by prenatal care support offered by health professionals. Prenatal care is vital in pregnancy as it clears the roadblocks and paves way for healthy pregnancy. Prenatal care packages, equipped with pregnancy management tools and mechanisms, catch risk or complications early on and provide access to better pregnancy health solutions.  

In this article:

• What is Prenatal Care?
• Importance of prenatal care during pregnancy 
• What are the key components of prenatal care? 
• Prenatal care packages: An overview 
• Benefits of prenatal care packages in pregnancy 
• Summary

What is Prenatal Care?

The care that is advised and recommended from the early weeks to the birth of your baby is said to be prenatal care. The elements of prenatal care are timely tests, personalised health care and diet plans, lifestyle and nutrition management and fitness routine. With focused prenatal care plan, the risks of gestational diabetes, blood pressure and obesity could be detected and chucked out from your pregnancy body.  

Importance of prenatal care during pregnancy 

Prenatal care during pregnancy is to educate you about your pregnancy, your expectations as an expectant mother, and prerequisites for your pregnancy to be successful. An open communication with your prenatal care provider erases doubts in your mind about your pregnancy, encourages you to know more information and gives you confidence to deal with the challenges that pop up in the course of your trimesters.   

What are the key components of prenatal care? 

• Prenatal testing: The tests that spans until the birth of your baby starts from the 8th week of your pregnancy. Your doctor will advice you to visit monthly till you reach your second trimester i.e 28 weeks. Once you hit the third trimester, the visits are planned every two to three weeks and for the rest of the period, you will be seeing your doctor weekly for the scans and check-ups. The trimester wise testing comprises of ultrasounds, blood and urine tests, and genetic tests to rule out genetic or chromosomal disabilities 
• Pregnancy diet and vitamins: Prenatal care is incomplete without proper nutritional diet and prenatal vitamins. Prenatal vitamins or supplements is very much needed for your baby’s growth and development. Folic acid, a super food or super vitamin supplement helps avoid neural defects in your baby and is recommended in your pregnancy first trimester. Also, prenatal vitamins prevent preterm birth and other complications like miscarriage, low birth weight and preeclampsia.  Along with prenatal supplements, following a pregnancy nutrition food rich in all food groups should be taken in order to build up stamina and go in full force to deal with your pregnancy.   
• Exercise and movement: Exercise and fitness routine is advised in prenatal care for pregnancy due to its array of benefits. It helps build agility, reduces stress and pregnancy related anxiety, improves sleeping habits, prepares your body for baby’s birth and helps in postpartum recovery.  

Prenatal care packages: An overview

A comprehensive prenatal package sees to it that it offers support from birth planning to postpartum recovery.  

• Birth planning: Starting a family requires thorough planning. Prenatal care assists you in educating you about conception, infertility issues, and IVF. If you are going though PCOS/PCOD and would like to manage symptoms, Prenatal birth planning offers a specialized care and support to deal with the symptoms for PCOS during pregnancy.  
• Personalised diet plans: Prenatal care packages offer valuable guidance on pregnancy nutrition food, personalised diet plan as it connects you to doctors and nutrition expert who will be your first point of contact for all your diet related queries. 
• Pregnancy readiness and hospital readiness plans: Pregnancy readiness in prenatal care program bridges gap between pregnancy seekers and relationship counsellors. Speaking to them periodically and knowing about preconception healthcare and medications is very important to bring a healthy baby in your life. Similarly, hospital readiness program prepares you for due date and panel of mentors in this program will guide you on pregnancy and postpartum healthcare.  
• Prenatal massage: Prenatal massage care generally starts post first trimester. It helps in strengthening your joints and pelvic floor and prepares your body for labor. Health experts recommend massaging to keep yourself calm and stress free.  

• Mother and baby connect: Mother-child bonding program keeps you updated about Garbhsanksar classes and activities to strengthen an emotional connect between you and your baby. Also, it will put you in touch with massage expert and infant lactation specialist who will train and explain various techniques of massaging and breastfeeding.  
• Postpartum care: Postpartum recovery is crucial stage in pregnancy. In this component, health providers introduce you to postpartum care beforehand so that you have a knowledge about therapists, anti-depression foods, and mental health counselling support.  
• Community building: Community building activities in prenatal care package is an icing on the cake where you get to interact in a judgement-free forum with new expecting mothers just like you, further, share your conflicts and seek guidance/coping mechanisms from them.   

Benefits of prenatal care packages in pregnancy: 

• Reduces the risk of birth and neural defects
• Promotes baby’s growth and development
• Treats the complications early on
• Supports you in tackling mental health challenges and pregnancy led depression
• Ensures you eat healthy food in all trimesters
• Erases the risk of infant mortality 
• Helps in strengthening bond between you and baby
• Prepares you in planning for different scenarios and contingencies
• Empowers you in every stage of your pregnancy
• Prepares you for delivery, lactation and parenthood 

Summary

Prenatal care importance is widely known to people in other countries but prenatal care in India is still in its embryonic stages. With lot of digital healthcare platforms and pregnancy femtech companies coming forward and taking initiatives, people have started realising what prenatal care means for pregnant women and how it is unravelling its significance in promoting healthy pregnancy.