Prenatal Care

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Basics

• Summary
• Start Here

Learn More

• Related Issues
• Specifics

See, Play and Learn

• Test Your Knowledge

Research

• Statistics and Research
• Clinical Trials
• Journal Articles

Resources

• Find an Expert

For You

• Patient Handouts

Summary

Prenatal care is the health care you get while you are pregnant. It includes your checkups and prenatal testing. Prenatal care can help keep you and your baby healthy. It lets your health care provider spot health problems early. Early treatment can cure many problems and prevent others.

Your doctor or midwife will give you a schedule for your prenatal visits. If you are over 35 years old or your pregnancy is high risk because of health problems like diabetes or high blood pressure, your doctor or midwife will probably want to see you more often. You can also expect to see your health care provider more often as your due date gets closer.

Dept. of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health

Start Here

• About Pre-Pregnancy Care and Prenatal Care (Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) Also in Spanish
• Have a Healthy Pregnancy (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion) Also in Spanish
• Medical Care during Pregnancy (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
• Pregnancy Check-Ups: Healthy Start for Mom and Baby (National Institutes of Health) Also in Spanish
• Prenatal Care (Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Women's Health) Also in Spanish
• Prenatal Care Checkups (March of Dimes Foundation) Also in Spanish
• Taking Care of You and Your Baby while You're Pregnant (American Academy of Family Physicians) Also in Spanish
• What Can I Do to Promote a Healthy Pregnancy? (Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) Also in Spanish

Related Issues

• Pregnancy and Nutrition: MedlinePlus Health Topic (National Library of Medicine) Also in Spanish

Specifics

• Prenatal Care: First Trimester Visits (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)
• Prenatal Care: Second Trimester Visits (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)
• Prenatal Care: Third Trimester Visits (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)
• What Happens during Prenatal Visits? (Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) Also in Spanish

Test Your Knowledge

• Test Your Pregnancy Knowledge (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish

Statistics and Research

• PeriStats: Perinatal Statistics (March of Dimes Foundation)

Clinical Trials

• ClinicalTrials.gov: Prenatal Care (National Institutes of Health)

Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)

• Article: The impact of group antenatal care on newborns: Results of a...
• Article: It takes a village: A pilot cross-randomized trial to enhance pregnancy...
• Article: Knowledge, Acceptance, and Uptake of Family Planning: A Cluster Randomized Controlled...
• Prenatal Care -- see more articles

Find an Expert

• Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Women's Health Also in Spanish
• Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Also in Spanish
• How to Find Find an Ob-Gyn (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists)
• March of Dimes Foundation Also in Spanish

Patient Handouts

• Pregnancy care (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Prenatal care in your first trimester (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Prenatal care in your second trimester (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Prenatal care in your third trimester (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish