Prenatal Development Test

PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT

• one choice to prospective mothers is the extent

to which they should undergo prenatal testing a
number of test can indicate whether a fetus Is
developing normality including ultrasound
sonography chorionic villus sampling
amniocentesis and maternal blood screening.
Medical Professionals
• Obstetrician (OB)- Doctors who specialize in
pregnancy and birth
• Gynecologist (GYN) – specializes in female
anatomy
• Many are OBGYN’s who
specialize in both
* a GYN can’t deliver
A baby
• A woman should stop drinking, smoking, etc.
before she tries to get pregnant.
• She should also start taking a prenatal vitamin
before she tries to get pregnant
• A woman will not know she is pregnant right
away, so she should live a healthy lifestyle that is
best for the baby!
• As soon as she finds out she is pregnant, she
should call the doctor!
1st Check Up
• Check Medical history
• Blood pressure, pulse, initial weight
• Pelvic measurement
• Urine analysis
• Blood test
▫ blood type
▫ anemia: condition caused by lack of iron, which
results in poor appetite, tiredness, and weakness

▫ This is the longest check-up. The father

should go to the visit too!
How Often?
• 1st six months – once a month
• 7th & 8th month – twice a month
• 9th month- once a week or more
Problems in Prenatal
Development
What is a premature
baby?
• Baby that is born before their development is
complete
• Pregnancy was less than 36 weeks
• Often weigh less than 5 ½ pounds (last month of
pregnancy is when they gain most of their weight)
• Small size and incomplete development can make
them vulnerable to infection, lung ailments, etc
• False Labor pains is not a sign of early pregnancy
• Most people are RH + = no complications
Rh Factor
• Causes a problem to the baby when the father is
Rh+ and the mother is RH-
Rh Disease: type of anemia that destroys the baby’s
red blood cells
Iron
• needs more iron than usual to produce all
the blood needed to supply nutrition to the
placenta
• May have to take an iron supplement
FOLIC ACID
• aids in the creation of the baby's nervous
system.

Folic acid can help prevent congenital

defects such as, spina bifida, cleft palate or
cleft lip.
Weight Gain for Mom

• Suggest between 25-30 lbs

• eat an extra 300 calories per day
• much of the weight gain goes to the growing baby
and the tissues that support it
Physical Activity
• Should be active unless told otherwise from her
doctor
• Avoid contact sports
• helps keep weight within normal activity,
strengthens muscles used during birth,
increases energy
• What are some activities that would be good for
a pregnant woman?
What is a congenital problem?

• a physical or biochemical problem in a baby that is

present at birth.
 Down Syndrome
Extra chromosome
 Cleft Lip
 Muscular Dystrophy
 Cerebral Palsy
What causes congenital problems?

• Environmental causes
▫ nutritional balance of mother’s diet
▫ any disease or infections the mother may have
during pregnancy
▫ harmful substances
▫ outside hazards (radiation)
• Heredity
• Errors in chromosomes
• The natural ending of a pregnancy before the embryo
What
or fetus is
canasurvive
miscarriage
• Miscarriage reportedly occurs in 20 percent of all
pregnancies. However, according to some sources, this
may be an inaccurate number. Many women, before
realizing a life has begun forming within them, may
miscarry without knowing it-assuming their
miscarriage is merely a heavier period.
• STILLBIRTH: the natural ending of a pregnancy after
20 weeks
▫ the loss happens by accident and is not the fault of the
father or mother
 vaginal bleeding
 unusual weight gain
 severe abdominal pain
 prolonged back pain
 increased vaginal mucus
Ectopic Pregnancy
• development of fetus outside of the uterus
• Usually in the fallopian tubes
• This cannot result in a successful pregnancy
What is an ultra sound?
• technique using sound waves to make a
video image of an unborn baby
Primary purpose of an ultra sound?

• to check for health problems and fetal

development
• skeletal/ organ defects
Amniocentesis

• A sample of the amniotic fluid surrounding

an unborn baby is withdrawn with a special
needle
• The fluid is checked for indications of
specific birth defects or other health
problems
Chorionic Villi Sampling
• small sample of placenta is removed
• done earlier in pregnancy
• more dangerous than amniocentesis
• used to detect genetic defect a chromosome
abnormalities
What is the purpose of genetic
counseling?

• Some defects can be predicted

• Service that combines a knowledge of heredity and
birth defects with lab tests
• Explains options and risk
• Tells parents in advance the statistical odds that
their children will have a certain disease or defect
sonography
• a prenatal medical procedure in which high-
frequincy sound waves are directed into the
pregnant womans abdomen.
• it can also determine the number of fetus and
give clues to the babys sex
Magnetic Resonance Imaging or MRI
• and uses a powerful magnet and radio images to
generate detailed images of the body’s organs
and structures currently.
• can provide more detailed images than
ultrasound in many instances
• used to obtain a clearer more detailed images
• be able to detect better than ultrasound
sonography are certain nervous system chest
gastrointestinal genital/urinary and placenta
abnormalities
maternal blood screening
• screening identifies pregnancies that have an
elevated risk for birth defects such as spina
bifida and down syndrome

• current blood test is called the triple screen

because it measure three substances in the
mothers blood after an abnormal triple screen
result