“A stitch in time saves nine.” I think prenatal care should be available to all women. Not only does prenatal care ensure that the mother to be is healthy to carry a baby full term, routine prenatal care could be a means where by birth defects, conditions and complications could be discovered leading to timely remedy options.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Blog 6
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2 comments:
You are right about women waiting until later in life and that does cause more concern. I had not thought of that before but it is very much a part of our society now days.
I noticed that when I went to the mall one weekend. Most of the couples with strollers and babies looked really old compared to the few obviously 18 or nineteen year olds. Many of moms appeared to easily be in their mid thirties. I remember thinking about how old they will be when their kids graduate college. They will be over the hill…just like me!
You obviously did your research. I wonder though if older women are getting pregnant - if medical technology will have to create and provide tests that are less invasive with less hazards to the fetus because they would be needed for a larger portion of the pregnant population. I think that is a worst part about having test like the chorionic villus sampling. The risk are too great for me. When interuterine surgery becomes more available and the risk are decreased I would then have the test so that possibly a surgeon could repair my baby.
Again, prenatal care would be able to recognize any warning signs like nutritional deficits or growth abnormalities like IUGR (interuterine growth retardation). Typically that is how it happens currently. When during your prenatal care a risk is recognized, your obstetrician sends you for further testing he or she thinks you might need.
Very well thought out post and content.
Prenatal care is not the same thing as prenatal testing. Prenatal care should be routine and thorough. However, not to the degree that a doctor should ever REQUIRE an invasive test that the mother is not fully educated about. My greatest concern about "routine" testing is that often "routine" treatments do not require the doctors to provide education for the patient. Doctors claim to know what's best and unless the patient is proactive enough to research the treatments herself, she may end up submitting to a test just because it is "routine". Some of these invasive prenatal tests can cause a pregnancy to end prematurely even when there is no problem. That is a risk that seems too high to me.
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