Q: Good evening Doctor, Please ma’am, at what week is a pregnant woman advisable to start Antenatal? Thanks

A: Here’s an excerpt from my book, Just For The Health Of It, that speaks to this question. If this is your first pregnancy, then you’re probably more worried than most. But the practical truth is that you should register for Antenatal care as soon as you realize you are pregnant.

To prepare for that visit, you should remember the date of your last menstrual period, family history of birth of child with abnormality, sickle cell disease etc. Be generous with information about any and everything that may affect your baby’s health such as lifestyle habits like smoking and alcohol drinking etc.

Ultrasound scan and other screening tests will also be carried out on urine, blood, blood pressure etc to confirm genotype, rhesus group, Diabetes, presence or absence of anaemia, high blood pressure, abnormalities etc. HIV screening will also be done after voluntary counselling.

You should choose a center that you feel confident with as regards the quality of the medical personnel and you should freely discuss your birth plan with them.

In the first instance, antenatal care will be scheduled once every 4 weeks until the pregnancy is 28 weeks. Thereafter, the appointments are scheduled every 2 weeks until 36 weeks and thereafter, every week till delivery. This is the normal schedule, but your care giver may decide to give you shorter appointments if there are other factors to be considered like the presence of hypertension in pregnancy or indeed to review results of tests you had been sent to do.

Then, those drugs that you are given? If you’re like me and hate to take drugs, then this is a big deal! 😀 But you do have to take them. The folic acid ensures that your baby does not end up with abnormalities of the spine and also helps build up your red blood cells in combination with the other drugs given. You’ve got to be religiously committed to taking these drugs to give your pregnancy the greatest chance of a good outcome.

So, have you taken today’s dose? Let’s go do it now 😀

Have a good night, everyone 😀