How Many Times Have Pregnant Women to Check the Content?

Contents:

• Medical Video: How a baby develops during pregnancy
  
• What is checked during the pregnancy check?
  
• How many times should you check the contents during pregnancy?
  
• WHO recommendations differ from the Indonesian Ministry of Health
  
• So, which one should you follow?
  

Medical Video: How a baby develops during pregnancy

Routinely checking with your doctor or midwife to check the contents is important during pregnancy. You. Prenatal care, or also commonly referred to as antenatal care, can help the doctor know the health condition of the body of the mother and fetus, so that she can prevent bad things from happening to the mother and prospective baby.

Research also shows that mothers who do not have a pregnancy check up are three times more likely to give birth to low-weight babies and babies are five times more likely to die, than babies born to mothers who routinely check the womb during pregnancy.

However, how often do you check the womb for nine months pregnant?

What is checked during the pregnancy check?

The integrated content examination includes 18 different types of tests, which include:

• Check personal health conditions and family history.
• Basic physical examination, such as checking body temperature, size of upper arm circumference, blood pressure, weight and height, Hb level, protein levels in urine (urine test), blood sugar checks, to total blood tests for risk of disease (viral and bacterial infections and other diseases, such as thalassemia).
• Pelvic examination and pap smear.

In general, what your doctor will do about pregnancy will depend on your age during pregnancy, your medical history or family, or based on your routine test results. If you are suspected of having a risk related to a particular health condition, you may also be asked to do various health tests that are related to confirm the diagnosis.

At the second pregnancy examination and so on, the doctor will continue to check your health condition and make sure your baby grows as expected. Your doctor may also start counting your baby's birth date.

During a routine content check session, the doctor will explain to you the importance of fulfilling nutrition during pregnancy (such as folic acid, calcium, and iron), how you should manage your diet, and share tips about adopting a healthy lifestyle.

How many times should you check the contents during pregnancy?

Obstetric examination is very important for the continuity of the health of pregnant women and their prospective babies. That is why the Ministry of Health is very stressed for every prospective mother and pregnant woman to routinely check her pregnancy, through Permenkes No. 25 of 2014 Article 6 paragraph 1b.

In this policy, the Indonesian Ministry of Health recommends every pregnant woman to check the womb regularly at least 4 (four) times. You can start checking the womb as soon as you know that you are pregnant. The sooner you start checking your pregnancy, the better.

However, based on the recommendations of Permenkes, here are details of the ideal time to carry out pregnancy checks throughout the pregnancy:

WHO recommendations differ from the Indonesian Ministry of Health

However, the recommendations of the Republic of Indonesia Minister of Health Regulation were slightly different from the latest guidelines issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2016. Through its press release, WHO recommends that every pregnant woman conduct a pregnancy checkupat least 8 times, starting at 12 weeks' gestation. The details are as follows:

• First trimester: 1 time check the content (12th week), plus ultrasound
• Second trimester: 2 times (week 20 plus USG, and week 26)
• Third trimester: 5 times (30th, 34th, 36th, 38th and 40th weeks); 1 additional visit at week 41, if you have not yet given birth.

So, which one should you follow?

Basically, both recommendations are just as good. With more frequent obstetric examinations, doctors can be more accurate in measuring your gestational age. Because if there is an error when measuring gestational age, doctors can be more difficult to diagnose, prevent, and treat the risk of complications that can occur, such as preterm labor and preeclampsia.

Ideally, if this is your first pregnancy, you should get a pregnancy check up to 10 times over the next nine months. If you already have children, an examination of the contents should ideally be done at least 7 times, unless you have certain medical conditions.

The purpose of the increase in the number of visits is to increase the life expectancy of infants and mothers. Because only 4 times the content, the risk of illness and death in mothers and babies is still quite high.