Prenatal Care
The journey to delivering a healthy baby begins long before you check into the labor and delivery department. The team at Oxford Clinic for Women is here to help you navigate your pregnancy.
A full-term pregnancy typically runs 40 weeks – nine full months - starting from the first day of your last menstrual cycle. A baby born within a week before or after the due date is considered full-term. As soon as you know you are pregnant, you should call to set your first prenatal visit with your healthcare provider. Getting early and regular prenatal care can help you have a healthy pregnancy and full-term baby.
Regular prenatal visits allow your medical team to track fetal growth and development while watching for early signs of pregnancy-related conditions like gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia, a dangerous form of high blood pressure. They also give you time to ask questions and discuss any concerns as your pregnancy progresses. Through the first 28 weeks, check ups are typically scheduled every four weeks. Between 28 and 36 weeks, the visits are set every two weeks. The final four weeks, your provider will typically want to see you weekly.
When possible, women should consider a pre-pregnancy visit with their Ob-Gyn. This allows you and your provider to identify any health issues that could impact pregnancy, address risk factors, adjust medications and prepare for a healthy pregnancy. It’s important for the health of both the mom and future baby for any chronic health problems to be well-controlled.
The first prenatal visit, usually set around eight weeks gestation, tends to be the longest and most involved. If this is your first visit to the clinic, the medical team will want to make sure they have a full medical history. For all pregnant women, this first visit will include a physical exam, gathering vital statistics like height, weight and blood pressure, blood and urine tests and a cervical cancer test. Your physician may also recommend vaccinations to protect mom and baby. Via an ultrasound, you may get your first glimpse of the developing baby, which will be about the size of a raspberry. This exam allows your medical team to check on the location of the fetus and take measurements to further pinpoint a due date.
At every visit, the medical team will record your weight and blood pressure, listen for the fetal heart rate, take external measurements to track the baby’s growth and check on pregnancy symptoms. Blood tests to monitor the mother’s health are set at specific intervals. Your doctor will generally schedule an ultrasound exam at around 20 weeks to look closely at the developing anatomy. During the final weeks, your physician will see you more frequently to monitor your progress toward labor. In the last few weeks of pregnancy, your doctor will begin internal exams to check the cervix as your body prepares to give birth. As the big day arrives, our obstetricians will be there to help you welcome your baby into the world in a safe and nurturing environment. Our practice routinely delivers babies at Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi in Oxford.
