Essay on Prenatal Care

Giving birth to a baby is the most amazing and miraculous experiences for parents and their loved ones. Every woman’s birth story is different and full of joy. Furthermore, the process from the moment a woman knows that she’s pregnant to being in the delivering room is very critical to both her and the newborn baby. Prenatal care is extremely important and it can impact greatly the quality of life of the baby. In this paper, the topic of giving birth will be discussed thoroughly by describing the stories of two mothers who gave birth in different decades and see how their prenatal cares are different from each other with correlation of the advancement of modern medicine between four decades.

The fifth step is swinging. When the baby is in the utero he/she is constantly being jiggled around. Simulating this will help relax the baby and make

Provide full antenatal care including the screening tests in the hospital, community and at home.

Patients should be given information regarding the importance of prenatal care and availability of prenatal care for future pregnancies.

Most pregnant woman imagine how their developing fetus looks like, what the developing fetus is doing at a particular point, and aspire to deliver a healthy baby. Most important, many prenatal and postpartum women are eager to know what she can do to help deliver a healthy baby and how to care for the newborn. Here are some advices and activities offered to a prenatal, postpartum, and future development of a child includes healthy foods, consumption of adequate water, exercise, medication awareness, and emotions.

In the past, in the United States the majority of women delivered at home with no anesthetics; women might have received assistance through a family doctor, including midwife care (Thomas, 2011). A radical change happened by the 1960s, when hospital childbirths had become the norm, the pain of the experience was reduced by epidural anesthesia controlled by a physician. Pregnant women received education on breastfeeding and other topics during their medical visits (Thomas, 2011).

Delivering vaginally in any if these cases would be very difficult and dangerous not just for the mother, but also for the baby. However, cesarean delivery is not always chosen in advance, it is also used in emergency situations and during difficult deliveries where it may be the safest option about 10 to 15% of women develop problems that lead to cesarean birth (Lenox Hill Hospital, 1)

According to “Human Sexuality: Diversity in Contemporary America,” women and couples planning the birth of a child have decisions to make in variety of areas: place of birth, birth attendant(s), medication, preparedness classes, circumcision, breast feeding, etc. The “childbirth market” has responded to consumer concerns, so its’ important for prospective consumers to fully understand their options. With that being said, a woman has the choice to birth her child either at a hospital or at home. There are several differences when it comes to hospital births and non-hospital births.

There has been a long debate over which birthing method women should use today: natural versus medicalized. The World Health Organization defines natural birth as a vaginal birth without the use of any.. and medicalized birth as being .. However, medicalized births are becoming increasingly popular in the United States. The use of technology and medical interventions in the birthing process has increased despite the unchanged basic physiology of childbirth. One of the most common medical interventions in the birthing process is having a cesarean delivery. Despite the known risks of having a cesarean section performed, the rates of this procedure have increased much higher than the acceptable rate of 10-15% as recommended by the World Health Organization. This is due to the reason that cesarean sections are now being performed as a matter of convenience of the physician or at the request of the patient more often than being performed as a life-saving intervention. Thus making surgical and medicalized interventions a part of a common routine in the childbirth experience.

There could also be complications between homebirths and hospital births. There can also be advantages as well. A mother that chooses to carry out a homebirth has limited pain relief while

64% of women (203) stated that medical providers were an important source of information on prenatal care; 32% of women (100) cited either WIC or Healthy Start; and 27% of women (86) cited friends and family. Only 9% of women cited the internet as a source of information on prenatal care. This question was multi-select therefore responses will not sum to 100%.

Many people enjoy the idea of planning events before they happen. Whether it’s going on vacation, getting family together for the holidays or planning the arrival of a newborn child;. The natural way for a baby to be born is through the mother’s birth canal and vagina. But, sometimes vaginal birth isn’t possible. More than ever, woman are opting to schedule childbirth electively, even though there can be serious risks and implications involved. Many who choose an elective childbirth, do have a legitimate reason as to why they made that decision. Center for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that, “cesarean deliveries reached a record high of 32.9 percent” out of all births in the United States (National Center for

The options for relieving these discomforts may be divided into six general types positive conditioning” (p.242). The Lamaze method is one of those six types of positive conditioning. Priscilla Ulin (1963) says “the unprepared mother who attempts labor without sedation and anesthesia is likely to experience frustration and severe pain. However, practitioners of the method developed by Ferdinand Lamaze have discovered that, with adequate preparation, the patient can control her reception of sensory stimuli to the extent that during labor she has little or no pain” (p. 60). I have heard of women using the Lamaze method and found it helpful to anticipate how they wanted the birth to feel. I find it interesting that the pain experienced in birth does not have to be unbearable. In 1977, Norr, Block, Charles, Meyering, and Meyers interviewed 249 women who had recently delivered and says “38% of our sample attended at least 5 Lamaze classes” (p.261). Most women are scared to give birth because they have heard numerous stories from other women just how painful it could be. Everyone in the world has a different pain tolerance and should be treated differently. I believe Lamaze is an excellent method of childbirth for those women who fear the pain from giving birth. It will condition

Childbirth can be described as one of the most rewarding and also painful experiences in a woman’s life. Most women choose some type of method to ease pain, however, there has been a lot of controversy over with pain management method is the most effective. According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control), In 2013, there were 3,932,181 births recorded in the United States, 32.7% of those births were surgical procedures. In 2012, 1.36% of recorded births occurred out-of-hospital, meaning these births took place mostly in homes or birthing centers. Without the option of medicine that a hospital provides, how were these women able to manage their pain during labor and delivery. There are many different methods for easing pain during childbirth, some methods involve the use of medicine and surgery, and others include natural techniques, such as hypnosis, Lamaze, and many others. It is a personal preference of the parents over which method is right for the needs of the mother and child. This can be an overwhelming decision for new parents to make because they have to take into consideration the safety of the mother and child, pain management for the mother and desire for medical involvement.

Prenatal care is widely accepted as an important element in improving pregnancy outcome. (Gorrie, McKinney, Murray, 1998). Prenatal care is defined as care of a pregnant woman during the time in the maternity cycle that begins with conception and ends with the onset of labor. A medical, surgical, gynecologic, obstretic, social and family history is taken (Mosby's Medical, Nursing, and Allied Health Dictionary, 1998). It is important for a pregnant woman as well as our society to know that everything that you do has an effect on your baby. Because so many women opt not to receive the benefits of prenatal care, our society sees the ramification, which include a variety of complications primarily