A Pregnancy Guide

Your first step after buying a home pregnancy test kit and watching as the little indicator stick turns pink, is to make an appointment with your regular doctor, or with your Ob-Gyn, in order to have them confirm the pregnancy.  Luck may be on your side and they may have an appointment available on the very same day, or you may end up having to wait for one or two weeks before they can see you.

  In the meantime you can do nothing but wait, which is not an easy thing to do when waiting to find out for sure whether or not you are pregnant.  Given the high level of reliability of the modern day home pregnancy test kits, after you visit your doctor you will most likely receive a phone call within the following two days, congratulating you on your new pregnancy.

Once the pregnancy has been confirmed, you need to call your Ob-Gyn or your midwife ASAP and schedule an appointment with them.  During the initial visit, you are going to be asked everything pertaining to your medical and family history (for example, whether or not you have previously been pregnant, whether there are any illnesses or conditions which may run in the family, etc… 

You can prepare this information in advance, and the visit will be that much more productive.  Be prepared.  Prior to your appointment, write down on paper any concerns or questions which may come to mind; this way you won`t forget to ask them during your visit.  Make sure to read over all the information and pamphlets which you receive as you leave your doctor`s office.  Before you leave, your doctor will almost certainly have you schedule your next appointment, and will provide you with a list of books and resources which are available at the local library, and which will allow you to educate yourself with respect to what you can expect over the next several months leading up to, and including, the actual delivery.

Its important that you begin taking the recommended prenatal vitamins as soon as possible, as they are vitally important throughout your pregnancy.  Your doctor should inform you if there any contraindications to you taking such vitamins, and if there are, will provide you with a suitable alternative.  Right around the 20th week of the pregnancy you will undergo the first ultrasound (US) test, and this is usually when you can find out the sex of the baby, if you want to be told, of course.  As a precaution, some doctors would like you to have an US much earlier, usually around weeks 10 to 12, to ensure that the fetus is in the correct location within the uterus, and to make sure the pregnancy is going according to plan.  You will also be given a glucose-tolerance test to determine whether you have, or are at risk for developing, gestational diabetes.

During the first 36 weeks of the pregnancy, your appointments wih the Ob-Gyn or midwife will be every 4 weeks.  After you reach the 36 week mark, however, you will have weekly appointments right up until the day of delivery.  This close and careful monitoring by your doctor should go a long way toward easing your anxiety about having a baby, and will allow you to focus more instead on actually enjoying the process.