Early Prenatal Care is the ONLY way!

Congratulations to all of you women and couples who are pregnant and excited. Congratulations also to all of you women who are not excited you are pregnant, and surprised or shocked that you are......you are in the majority, it seems.

I write to tell you to just go ahead and make a OB-GYN appointment at whichever service provider you can afford as soon as possible. (Yes, it's just fine to do a home pregnancy test first), because THE SOONER THAT YOU START YOUR MEDICAL CARE, THE HEALTHIER YOU AND YOUR BABY CAN BE.

I work as a nurse educator in a busy Birthing Center, but also at the bedside, as I have for 25 years with my BSN degree and now attending college to get my master's in education. I find that the women wait until they are "used to the pregnancy" "thought I should wait until three months to make sure I would carry the baby" "didn't want my family to know"....."didn't want my boyfriend to know"......"didn't want my church to know"....and many others.

But, the sooner you go, the sooner the doctor will have a baseline for your health, the baby's environment for growth, and give you the start up packet of information for having a healthy pregnancy.

For those of you who are surprised, you may indeed find a supportive list of agencies who can assist you with increased nutrition, and advise. Call social services, and look for free services under various names like a pregnancy care center where you can received advise, support and sometimes free items needed for the baby later. One public agency will often refer to other public agency who does a different service for your benefit. THE IMPORTANCE of just GETTING STARTED SOMEWHERE IN THE CIRCLE OF CARE just cannot be minimized. Please start.

In the years that I have worked, I have seen mother's with undiagnosed diabetes, sexually transmitted diseases, high blood pressure, all of which have started a labor and delivery way too early for the baby to survive. Yes, the mother gets served, but the baby didn't make it.

I have noticed a huge population of people, who once they are adults and don't have to go to the well-baby visits their parents took them to while they were yet at home, or college students, they just don't go for yearly or even every two year health check ups. This means that a portion of pregnant women who are getting pregnant just don't know their blood pressure is high, their blood sugar may be "borderline" (the pregnancy pushes them into "gestational diabetes" for the duration of the pregnancy), or they have a sexually transmitted disease which could be passed on the baby at birth.

For you who are surprised about the pregnancy, you will get used to the idea----probably as soon as you get the care provider waiting room. But you will never get used to the poor health consequences for you or the baby is you don't access the care providers care----SOON.

Have a nice day.