What Does Antenatal Care Mean?
Antenatal care is designed to check your health and look for anything that could affect your growing baby. At each visit, you will have a chance to discuss any questions or concerns. Your urine, blood pressure and weight gain will be checked. Your doctor will also examine your abdomen to ascertain the position and size of the baby. In the later weeks of pregnancy, your baby’s heartbeat will also be detected using a small hand-held machine called a Doptone. The assessment also involves the following blood tests: • A full blood count to exclude anaemia (low blood count which leaves you tired and less able to cope if you lose too much blood during or after the birth) and thalassaemia (a common genetic blood disorder in Singapore) • Blood grouping in the event a blood transfusion would be required • Hepatitis and syphilis screening • Rubella antibody screening (optional) to establish a history of exposure to this infection • An HIV screening as the implications on your baby may be signific
