Parenthood - Know About It

Hello friends.

I am Dr. Anjali Bapat, a gynaecologist and obstetrician. Today my topic is parenthood. In the last 30 years of my experience, I have come across many pregnant many couples having either a planned or an unplanned pregnancy. Believe me, it's the most beautiful phase of life. When you miss your period immediately consult a gynaecologist, she will advise you either to do a urine pregnancy test or a blood pregnancy test. This will tell you whether you are pregnant or not pregnant and that will be followed by a clinical examination and a sonography. The first sonography dealt the exact beginning of pregnancy and a lot of decisions will depend upon this is sonography. The first 3 months of pregnancy you have to visit your doctor every month, she will check your weight, blood pressure as well as will do an internal check-up and will advise you a folic acid tablet. In the second trimester of your pregnancy, again you have to visit your doctor once in a month, check get everything checked but along with it, it is very important to do certain blood test and sonography.

Let's talk about sonography first: at 13 weeks an NT scan has to be done which will tell you the possibility of a normal or an abnormal child and at 18 weeks an anomaly scan which tells you the structural abnormalities of the child. In the last 3 months of the pregnancy, it is important to visit your doctor and then decide the plan of the delivery. Friends, normal delivery is always better and hence choose a doctor who promises you that she will be with you during your delivery process. Choose a centre which will give all facilities to take care of a new born that means which has got a neonatal intensive care unit, anaesthetist, operation theatres and a beautiful delivery room having all the equipment.

Why is this important? This is important because when your baby is born; in case some help is required you get everything under one roof. Now once you start your labour pains, a delivery process for the first time usually is for 24 hours. During this time, you are observed by with a lot of parameters like a NST as well as a contraction test, your dilatation is examined and if you want painless labour then epidural anaesthesia is offered to you. It is always better to deliver vaginally but there are certain times where a caesarean section is must and these are supposed if you had previous caesarean section or if baby's health is not below that means a baby's buttocks are down and a head is up or baby is in a horizontal position which means the transverse lap or if you had any pregnancy complications like pregnancy-induced hypertension, diabetes, etc then, of course, you a planned caesarean section is done. Otherwise, it is always better to have a vaginal delivery with complete monitoring. During this monitoring, if a doctor finds out that the baby's head not moving adequately or if baby's foetal heartbeats that mean baby's heart beats are going up and down then definitely you need an emergency caesarean section. Friends, I have read a very beautiful quote that "a mother is born with the birth of a child", to have that beautiful experience all the best.

Thank you so much!