Prenatal care issues

There is no standardized nursing plan suitable for everyone. All nursing actions must be adjusted around the physical indicators, past medical history, and living habits of the pregnant mother. The core goal is to avoid the anxiety of over-care, avoid the risk of insufficient care, and ultimately achieve maternal and fetal safety.

Last month, she accompanied her best friend, who was pregnant with her first child, to a prenatal care check-up. She saved two full pages of the Little Red Book prenatal care list on A4 paper, including drinking a coconut every day to replenish amniotic fluid, eating three goose eggs a week to remove fetal toxins, and climbing 10 floors a day during the third trimester of pregnancy to help with vaginal delivery. As a result, the doctor turned over two pages and crossed out more than half of it. He said with a smile, "If you follow all the instructions, you will most likely not be able to pass the glucose tolerance test next time." I was stunned at the time. It turned out that most of the "pregnancy must-do lists" we read every day were useless in the eyes of doctors.

Interestingly, there are actually two parallel views on prenatal care in the obstetric circle, and no one can convince anyone. Most of the young evidence-based doctors talk about clinical guidelines: folic acid must be taken from 3 months before pregnancy to 3 months after pregnancy. Pregnant mothers with a normal BMI should control their weight gain during pregnancy between 11.5-16kg. If there are no symptoms such as calcium deficiency cramps, there is no need to take extra large doses of calcium tablets. The so-called folk remedies for removing fetal toxins and replenishing amniotic fluid are all nonsense. However, many veteran obstetricians and experienced elders who have been practicing for 20 to 30 years prefer empirical care: if your hands and feet are cold in winter, you can drink some warming soup. If your lower limbs are edema, boil some corn silk water to drink. When you are in a bad mood, don’t stay at home and go to the park more often. These contents have not been included in the official guide, but they are indeed useful to many pregnant mothers.

A while ago, I saw everyone in a group of pregnant mothers getting into a quarrel. A pregnant mother said that she walked 8,000 steps a day and gave birth naturally in just two hours. She advised everyone to exercise more during the third trimester of pregnancy.； Another pregnant mother directly criticized her, saying that she walked five to six thousand steps a day because of such words. As a result, she had bleeding and was hospitalized for a week, and she had to lie down for three months to save the fetus. In fact, both sides are right. Pregnant mothers with cervical insufficiency, placenta previa, and a history of recurrent miscarriage are at risk if they step more than 8,000 steps and stand for a while. Pregnant mothers with normal body parameters can indeed control their weight and shorten the labor process by maintaining about 30 minutes of low-intensity exercise every day. There is no unified standard answer.

There are also many pregnant mothers who are prone to fall into the trap of supplements. When my cousin was pregnant, she was told that she should take DHA supplements, multivitamins, and a cup of milk powder for pregnant women in the morning and evening. As a result, her weight increased by 32 kilograms in six months, and her glucose tolerance was completely exceeded. In the next two months, she ate multi-grain rice every day, which was so sweet that she dared not touch it. In the end, the baby was only 5 kilograms and 8 taels when she was born. She herself gained 20 kilograms and has not lost weight yet. Later, the nutritionist said that as long as you eat a balanced diet and eat enough meat, eggs, milk, vegetables and fruits, you don’t need to supplement so much. If you are really lacking any trace elements, you can find out through a blood test during the prenatal check-up. Indiscriminate supplementation will increase the burden on kidney metabolism.

What many people tend to overlook is that prenatal care is not only about taking care of the child in the belly, but the emotions of the pregnant mother are also a top priority. I once met a 37-week pregnant mother at the obstetrics triage table. She was sitting on a chair in the corridor crying. She said that her family only asked her whether she was eating or not and whether she was hungry. No one cared about her. She had insomnia until the early hours of the morning. She was afraid of the pain of vaginal delivery and that the baby would be defective. She was anxious all night long when she saw posts about a deformed baby. Later, the nurse in the obstetrics department drew her into a group of pregnant mothers in the hospital. A group of pregnant mothers with similar due dates chatted about family affairs every day, complained about their husbands' clumsiness, and shared their experiences in stocking up. Gradually, they calmed down. To be honest, sometimes one sentence, "I was like this when I was pregnant," is much more useful than ten sentences, "You should eat more for the benefit of the baby."

I was chatting with a head nurse in the obstetrics department that I am familiar with. She has been working for almost 20 years and she said that she has seen too many pregnant mothers trying to argue with doctors using the "perfect pregnancy standards" on the Internet. In fact, is there any template for prenatal care? If you are not sure what can and cannot be done, just take your examination report and ask your prenatal doctor. He knows your physical condition better than any stranger on the Internet. Don't beat yourself up just to meet the standards of the so-called "qualified pregnant mothers". Only when you are comfortable will the child in your belly be comfortable. This is more important than anything else.