Your first visit
The first antenatal visit is designed to confirm your pregnancy and to determine your general health. In addition, the visit will give your healthcare provider clues to any risk factors that may affect your pregnancy. It will typically be longer than future visits. This is also an opportunity to tell your provider if you're in a vulnerable situation or if you need extra support.
The purpose of the antenatal visit is to:
- Determine your due date.
- Find out your health history.
- Explore the medical history of family members.
- Determine if you have any pregnancy risk factors based on your age, health, and/or personal and family history.
You are likely to receive information about:
- Folic acid and vitamin D supplements.
- Nutrition, diet, and food hygiene.
- Lifestyle factors, such as smoking, drinking, and recreational drug use.
- Antenatal screening tests.
Your prenatal provider is likely to ask you about:
- The date of the first day of your last period.
- Any previous illnesses and operations.
- Any previous pregnancies and any complications or infections in a previous pregnancy or delivery, such as preeclampsia, premature birth, or miscarriage.
- Any medications (prescription or over-the-counter) you have taken or are currently taking.
- Whether you or anyone in your family have previously had a baby with an abnormality, such as spina bifida.
- If there is a family history of inherited disease.
- If you're being treated for chronic diseases, diabetes or high blood pressure.
- The ethnic origins of you and your partner, to find out whether your baby is at risk of certain inherited conditions, or other relevant factors, such as whether your family has a history of twins.
- Your job or your partner's job, and what kind of accommodation you live in to see whether your circumstances might affect your pregnancy.
- How you're feeling and whether you've been feeling depressed.
healthdirect.gov.au. (2018, July). Your first antenatal visit. Retrieved from https://www.pregnancybirthbaby.org.au/your-first-antenatal-visit