• Contact us
• About us
• A-Z topics
• Symptom Checker
• Service Finder
• Linking to us
• Information partners
• Terms of use
• Privacy

Pregnancy, Birth and Baby is funded by the Australian Government and operated by Healthdirect Australia.

Pregnancy, Birth and Baby is provided on behalf of the Department of Health

Pregnancy, Birth and Baby’s information and advice are developed and managed within a rigorous clinical governance framework. This website is certified by the Health On The Net (HON) foundation, the standard for trustworthy health information.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

This information is for your general information and use only and is not intended to be used as medical advice and should not be used to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any medical condition, nor should it be used for therapeutic purposes.

The information is not a substitute for independent professional advice and should not be used as an alternative to professional health care. If you have a particular medical problem, please consult a healthcare professional.

Except as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, this publication or any part of it may not be reproduced, altered, adapted, stored and/or distributed in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of Healthdirect Australia.

Support for this browser is being discontinued for this site

• Internet Explorer 11 and lower

We currently support Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Firefox and Safari. For more information, please visit the links below:

• Chrome by Google
• Firefox by Mozilla
• Microsoft Edge
• Safari by Apple

You are welcome to continue browsing this site with this browser. Some features, tools or interaction may not work correctly.

How to properly prepare for pregnancy and childbirth?

How to properly prepare for pregnancy and childbirth?

What is family planning and
How to properly prepare for pregnancy and childbirth?

A healthy child can only be born to healthy parents. Every family must be convinced of the need to plan the birth of a child. The main result of family planning is free and responsible parenthood, these are children at will, and not by chance!

S. P. Kondrashova (Head of the gynecological department)

How to properly prepare for pregnancy and childbirth?

A healthy child can only be born to healthy parents. Every family must be convinced of the need to plan the birth of a child. The main result of family planning is free and responsible parenthood, these are children at will, and not by chance. Such children are born physically healthy. It is very important that the pregnancy proceeds without complications, which negatively affect the intrauterine development of the child, create conditions for the drug load on the fetus during their treatment, and cause deviations in the process of subsequent births. In addition, pregnancy creates a significant burden on the body, often reveals latent diseases.

How to have a healthy baby?

Planning for the birth of a child begins with taking care of your body, preparing it for pregnancy and creating favorable conditions for its occurrence. During the planning of pregnancy, it is advisable for the expectant mother to visit a doctor together with her husband and be examined. It is necessary to make sure that both spouses do not have diseases from the genital area and pathology of other organs and systems that can have an adverse effect on the fetus. It should be noted that the dominant causes in the development of the threat of abortion, premature birth, non-developing pregnancy are infection, genetic and hormonal disorders.

A general examination will be scheduled for the expectant mother at the antenatal clinic: a general blood test, urine, blood type and Rh factor. It is extremely important to examine for the presence of a number of infections: viral hepatitis B, tuberculosis, toxoplasmosis, herpes, ureaplasmosis and mycoplasmosis, chlamydial and other sexually transmitted infections.

Before the onset of pregnancy, as well as during it, you need good nutrition, additional intake of vitamins. Moreover, the future father should be a reflection of the wife's diet with the addition of calories according to body weight and activity. The better the nutrition of a man, the more healthy his sex cells. In preparation for pregnancy, spouses should limit caffeine intake, exclude, if possible, taking medications. If they are necessary, you need to make sure that they are safe for the future fetus. At least 2-3 months before a possible conception, it is advisable to completely stop drinking alcohol, stop smoking for both spouses, and especially for a woman.

In general, future parents try to follow the recommendations of doctors. But, unfortunately, sometimes it happens that the simplest recommendations - to give up smoking, alcohol - are perceived with skepticism. Indeed, awareness is not a synonym for responsibility for one's health and the health of the unborn child. What kind of responsibility can we talk about if a woman is being treated in an obstetric hospital for threatening premature birth and tells the doctor that she "almost does not smoke anymore." Almost - this is half a pack of cigarettes, and before "almost" there was a pack. Numerous studies have shown that nicotine has a detrimental effect on the placenta - blood flow is disturbed in it, the mass of the placenta decreases, getting into the blood of the fetus, nicotine binds hemoglobin, which leads to oxygen starvation of the child. Women who smoke and drink alcohol are more likely to give birth to sick children, including those with malformations.

Thanks to modern high technologies currently used in medicine, we give women the opportunity to know the happiness of motherhood, who 15-20 years ago not only could not get pregnant, but also could not live to reproductive age. These are women with severe heart defects, including those after surgical correction, with severe forms of diabetes and other diseases. It is especially important for such women to undergo preconception (before pregnancy) preparation.

None of us is insured against the birth of a child with a genetically determined pathology. In more than half of the cases, a hereditary disease occurs in the family for the first time. How to prevent the birth of a child with malformations and hereditary diseases?

Preparing for the birth of a child, it must be remembered that the risk of hereditary diseases increases sharply when relatives are married, if there are children in the family with developmental defects, mental retardation, several miscarriages, stillbirths, when the age of parents is over 35-40 years. Such married couples must undergo counseling in a medical genetic consultation. The specialist will inform future parents about the risk of the disease, prescribe the necessary examinations, which are desirable to be carried out before pregnancy, and give recommendations.

In recent years, in many countries, including ours, the so-called preconception therapy is used, that is, treatment before and after conception, which several times reduces the likelihood of malformations of the nervous system. This is the intake of folic acid by both spouses 2-3 months before conception and by a woman in the first three months of pregnancy.

Of no small importance is the age of women giving birth for the first time. From a medical point of view, the optimal age for pregnancy and childbirth is the age period from 20-22 to 35 years. If at a young age we note the physiological immaturity of the organs of the reproductive system, then after 35 years, the natural aging of the reproductive organs begins. In addition, with age, we acquire a certain baggage of diseases that can adversely affect the course of pregnancy. At the same time, the number of women giving birth to their first child after 30-35 years is growing every year. In this sense, we are becoming more and more like Western countries - women first get an education, make a career, and then give birth to children.

So, getting ready to become parents, it is necessary: ​​to collect information about chronic diseases, malformations, cases of miscarriage, stillbirths in the family. If the family suffers from chronic diseases, consult a geneticist for information about the possible risk of disease in the unborn child. Conduct an examination of the expectant mother at the gynecologist, determine the titer of antibodies to certain infections (rubella, toxoplasmosis). Conduct a course of treatment with folic acid: for the future dad - three months before conception, for the expectant mother - three months before conception and three months after it.

Perform fetal ultrasound at least twice during pregnancy. It is desirable for pregnant women over 36 years of age to determine the risk of Down syndrome.

As can be seen from the above, the key to the successful completion of pregnancy is its planning.

In the conditions of the city of Minsk, you can get professional advice and medical assistance in full to prepare for the birth of a child. To do this, you can contact not only the doctors of antenatal clinics, but also the Republican Scientific and Practical Center "Mother and Child", the city Family Planning Center in the city clinical maternity hospital No. 2, and medical centers.

In recent years, significant budgetary funds have been allocated to equip and re-equip obstetric institutions with modern high-tech medical and diagnostic equipment, which makes it possible to detect the slightest pathology in a pregnant woman and fetus and prevent the development of complications.

But, most importantly, future parents should be aware that they are primarily responsible for the health of the unborn child, moreover, equally. Parents must walk together from preparation for conception to pregnancy to the birth of a child.

Childbirth after 30 - articles from the specialists of the clinic "Mother and Child"

Broitman Evgeniya Viktorovna

Reproductologist

Clinical Hospital "AVICENNA" GC "Mother and Child"

According to psychologists, the birth of a child at a more mature age is more favorable than in youth. As a rule, in a couple where parents are over 30, they prepare in advance for the appearance of the first child, and the child is born desired.

In addition, just by the age of 30, life experience, wisdom, and psychological maturity appear. All these qualities allow you to calmly relate to your condition, make informed decisions. Psychological comfort for the baby in such a family is provided.

The medical aspects of late pregnancy and childbirth have also improved in recent years.

Previously, there was an opinion that with increasing age, the number of possible complications of both pregnancy and childbirth increases in direct proportion.

However, in recent years, this point of view has been refuted by most studies. The frequency of occurrence of such pathology of pregnancy as fetoplacental insufficiency (and as a result, intrauterine hypoxia and fetal growth retardation), as well as nephropathy of pregnant women occurs among women over 30 years of age with the same frequency as among younger pregnant women. Moreover, patients after 30 years of age, as a rule, are more disciplined and responsible, better follow the doctor's recommendations. This contributes to the prevention and timely treatment of emerging complications of pregnancy.

It is widely known that the incidence of diseases of internal organs, such as arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, obesity, metabolic syndrome, unfortunately increases after 30 years. However, the level of development of modern medicine allows timely diagnosis and treatment of such conditions at the stage of preparation for pregnancy and during it.

A necessary condition in such a situation is careful monitoring of the course of pregnancy, the state of internal organs. If necessary, the doctor prescribes treatment (both drug and non-drug), which does not adversely affect the baby's condition, and at the same time contributes to the normalization of the functions of the expectant mother's organs.

Women aged 35 and over have a significantly increased risk of having children with a genetic disorder (eg Down syndrome, Edwards syndrome, Patau syndrome, etc.). However, at the present stage of development of medical genetics, most of these diseases can be diagnosed even in the early stages of pregnancy.

As early as 11-12 weeks of gestation, ultrasound examination can reveal some malformations and reveal changes that may indicate the presence of a chromosomal pathology of the fetus.

Thus, the presence of a thickening of the collar zone in the fetus at 11-12 weeks of gestation in most cases reveals Down's syndrome. The second ultrasound examination is performed at 20-22 weeks of pregnancy. During these periods, it is possible to determine the anatomy of all organs of the fetus, to identify deviations in development.

Biochemical markers of chromosomal pathology are another important method for diagnosing genetic diseases. They are determined in the blood of the expectant mother at 11-12 weeks and at 16-20 weeks of pregnancy.

In the 1st trimester, the concentration in the blood of a protein associated with pregnancy and human chorionic gonadotropin is monitored, in the second trimester, a combination of alphafetoprotein and human chorionic gonadotropin. To make sure that the suspicions are correct, so-called invasive diagnostic methods are used.

This is a chorion biopsy (obtaining cells from the future placenta), which is performed at 8-12 weeks of pregnancy, amniocentesis (aspiration of amniotic fluid at 16-24 weeks), cordocentesis - puncture of the umbilical cord of the fetus (performed at 22-25 weeks of pregnancy).

These methods allow you to accurately determine the chromosome set of the unborn child and speak with confidence about the presence or absence of genetic diseases in him. All studies are carried out under ultrasound control, which allows you to minimize the degree of complications.

It was previously believed that the first birth after the age of 30 years is an indication for caesarean section. Now this position is hopelessly outdated. Most women of mature age give birth on their own. Of course, it should be remembered that in patients of this age category, such complications of childbirth as the development of weakness in labor, acute fetal hypoxia are somewhat more common than in the general population.

Learn more

• 
  How to break a child from biting
• 
  Heavy period after c section
• 
  How much rest does a pregnant woman need
• 
  Vagina right after birth
• 
  How long can a child be covered under parents health insurance
• 
  How to check for meningitis in a child
• 
  How do i know if my child has tonsillitis
• 
  Contraction feeling in stomach
• 
  Pregnancy and mucus discharge
• 
  Ultrasound internal probe
• 
  How to adopt a child in washington state