Episode 147: Routine Prenatal Care - a podcast by Rio Bravo Family Medicine Residency Program

Episode 147: Routine Prenatal Care

Written by Elika Salimi, MSIV. Western University of Health Sciences, College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific. Comments and editing by Hector Arreaza, MD.

You are listening to Rio Bravo qWeek Podcast, your weekly dose of knowledge brought to you by the Rio Bravo Family Medicine Residency Program from Bakersfield, California, a UCLA-affiliated program sponsored by Clinica Sierra Vista, Let Us Be Your Healthcare Home. This podcast was created for educational purposes only. Visit your primary care provider for additional medical advice.

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Elika: So, we’re going to talk about some general principles of prenatal care and some of the most important diagnostic methods that we mainly use for taking care of pregnant women. I will forewarn you that there will be a ton of details in this talk, and I do recommend possibly taking notes as things can get easily confusing. This way you can have something to refer back to whenever you have a pregnant patient of your own.

Arreaza: You can also download the episode notes from our website.

Elika - So your patient is pregnant and she comes to you for care. How do we go about it? Well, this is assuming she had it at home urine pregnancy positive test and we got a blood hCG on her and everything’s good and we know she’s pregnant. Ok so now what happens next?

Arreaza – We need to confirm the patient wants to keep the pregnancy.

Elika - First, we’re going to talk about the frequency of the check-ups. In this case, we are talking about a situation where the mother is coming to her appointments as she was supposed to but we all know that sometimes that doesn’t happen if everything is going as it is supposed to then typically we get the initial examination at about 10 weeks of gestation and then until the 28th week there should be monthly visits, then from the 28th through the 36th there should be biweekly visits, and from the 36th week until birth, the visits are every week.

Areaza – What´s next?

Elika - Now I’d like to note that during the prenatal period, informed consent is very important and it should be obtained during this time because you want to prevent and manage any ethical conflicts that might exist between the mother and possibly the healthcare providers because we all know that any pregnancy can become high-risk at some point and pregnant individuals should be informed about the potential need for a c-section for example and be encouraged to discuss any concerns ahead of time. 

Elika - Now while we’re talking about ethics, if the doctor finds him/ or herself in a situation where the patient is asking for something that the Dr does not feel comfortable with such as a certain type of treatment or a certain method of delivery or if they’re, let’s say, desiring an abortion and the doctor doesn’t do abortions, then in this case you would refer the patient to a physician that is comfortable with the patient’s desired outcome or treatment. And this is perfectly legal and fine just as long as you help the patient find somebody else. 

Arreaza – Abortion is legal in most states, but check your local regulations.

Elika - So as mentioned earlier, the initial visit occurs at about 10 weeks of gestation. We start with checking their personal and family history and finding out about any previous pregnancies including at what GA baby born and weight if they know, any complications, gestational diabetes or preeclampsia, any history of postpartum hemorrhage requiring blood transfusion, any abortions (if present at what GA), and the method of deliveries, whether it was vaginal or a cesarean and what kind of C-section they had done. These are very important for you to obtain from your patient. You will also assess for depression and domestic partner violence.

Arreaza – In California, we have a wonderful service called CPSP: Comprehensive Perinatal Services Program. What comes next? 

Elika - Upon receiving the history, we will do the gynecological examination and send in some samples. We will also send her to do some lab work. Now what do those labs entail? Well, we are going to get a CBC such as screening for anemia, we will also do TSH but only in people who have possible signs of thyroid disorder so not everybody needs to get this. And, we are going to send for a blood typing to find out about their ABO group and the Rhesus status. 

We will also obtain a urine analysis to screen for proteinuria and asymptomatic bacteriuria because in pregnancy, unlike outside of pregnancy, you do need to treat asymptomatic bacteriuria. We will also ensure that the mother is on prenatal vitamins, so folic acid, if not already, and iron, if indicated, and vitamin B6 if the patient has signs of nausea or hyperemesis gravidarum and this can be combined with doxylamine. Usually, pregnant women don’t get a glucose screening test at the first visit unless let’s say they have high risk of diabetes or they there was glucose in the urine. 

Arreaza – I like the topic of diabetes in pregnancy. So, in a high-risk population, we want to make sure a pregnant patient does not have diabetes, or pregestational diabetes.

Elika - We will also screen for STI’s including HIV, syphilis, hepatitis B, Hep C, and we also check for gonorrhea and chlamydia (pap) screening particularly in those under 25, or over 25 with high risk of infection. We will also test for rubella and varicella. Some places also order a QuantiFERON gold for tuberculosis. There are certain women that have indications for third-trimester screening for STI’s on top of the ones that they already got in their first trimester. Those include chlamydia, gonorrhea, HIV, syphilis, and Hep B, and C but each of those have its own indications so for the purposes of time I will let you look that up on your own.

Arreaza – Summary: Physical exam and labs to rule out preexisting conditions that may interfere with pregnancy, either infectious or metabolic, to mention some diseases. 

Elika - And finally, we will do an ultrasound assessment to get a more accurate reading of the fetus’s gestational age.

Arreaza – What comes after the first trimester?

Elika- So like I mentioned they’re going to need to be following up and some particular things need to be done at specific weeks. So we are going to discuss those. 

At every follow visit you need to obtain: the patient’s weight, BP and other vitals, fetal heart sounds, the baby’s measurement from the mother’s pubic symphysis up until the fundus of the uterus, as well as a urine analysis to check for any glucose or protein in the urine because we are always concerned of possible preeclampsia or gestational diabetes. 

Another examination that I should mention is a Doppler ultrasound and this is usually indicated if there is suspected fetal growth restriction or if there’s pregnancy-induced hypertension or if there’s suspected fetal deformities or there is growth discordance in multiple pregnancies.

Now we are going to discuss assessing for any abnormalities in the fetus. All pregnant women regardless of age should be offered noninvasive and aneuploidy screening test before 20 weeks of gestation. The 1st trimester combined screening occurs at about 10 to 13 weeks gestation, where we can order some blood tests for the mom such as the amount of hCG in maternal serum, as well as PAPP-A, on top of nuchal translucency that will see on the ultrasound. 

There is also the triple screen at 15-20 weeks which consists of ordering hCG, alpha-fetoprotein aka AFP, and estriol then there’s also the quad screen test at 15-22 weeks gestation that consists of hCG, AFP, Estriol and Inhibin A. We also have the cell free fetal DNA testing that can occur after 10 weeks gestation at which the fetal DNA is isolated from the maternal blood specimen for genetic testing and this one actually happens to be the most sensitive and specific screening test for common fetal aneuploidies, and it is used for secondary screening after the ultrasound.

Arreaza – Actually that test is done in all our patients on Medi-Call (cfDNA).

Elika - If any of the screening tests are abnormal then we can provide counseling to mothers for more invasive diagnostic tests such as chorionic villus sampling, amniocentesis, and cordocentesis. At that point, you want to refer the patient to perinatology. 

Finally, in general an anatomical scan occurs ~18-22 weeks. 

Arreaza – Excellent, we have done the non-invasive genetic screening. What’s next? 

Elika - Now we are going to talk about what happens in the third trimester specifically and what test you need to order. In the third trimester, you will order a CBC again, particularly at 24 weeks you want to do a repeat hemoglobin. We will also do the indicated repeat STI checks. We are also going to do gestational diabetes screening with the oral glucose test that I briefly mentioned earlier at around 24-28 weeks. 

This is usually done with a 50g 1 hr glucose tolerance test and if abnormal then a 100g 3 hour glucose test. You will also be repeating the Rh antibody just to make sure that the mother is still Rh negative because at 28 weeks, Rh negative mother should be administered RhoGAM 300 mcg intramuscularly and they need to get it again within 72 hours of delivery. 

Don’t forget to give a TDAP vaccine at 27 weeks. 

And at 36 weeks you need to be obtaining a GBS culture (vaginal and rectal) for the patient just to make sure that there is no colonization because if there is then the patient is going to need GBS prophylaxis at admission because colonization by these bacteria can cause chorioamnionitis and neonatal infection such a sepsis. 

Overall when third trimester approaches you’re going to make sure the plans for delivery have been properly scheduled or discussed with the patient and typically around 34 weeks you also want to check with your patient to see if they desire sterilization and obtain a consent if they will be having a C-section and they want to be sterilized after that. In those not requesting sterilization, it is a good idea to discuss what they want to do after this pregnancy for birth control since it is not safe to get pregnant again for another year. From 36 weeks' gestation, use Leopold maneuvers for assessment of fetal presentation but I'll let you look that up on your own. At this time, you may also use ultrasound as needed to confirm fetal lie and placental position.

Patients with maternal conditions such as gestational diabetes or gestational hypertension/pre-eclampsia, or fetal condition such as heart defects or fetal growth restriction need to get biweekly NST/BPP tests at clinic in the third trimester because there is an increased risk of fetal hypoxic injury or death. 

An NST is basically a non-stress test that measures fetal heart rate reactivity to fetal movements. BPP /biophysical profile is a noninvasive test that evaluates the risk of antenatal fetal death usually after the 28th gestational week and what it consists of is the ultrasound assessment of fetal movement, fetal tone, fetal breathing, and amniotic fluid volume or we can also perform a contractions stress test that basically measures fetal heart rate reactivity in response to uterine contractions. 

Arreaza – I like talking about obesity. Weight gain is expected during pregnancy. Patients with normal weight are expected to gain 25-35 pounds. Patients with obesity are recommended to gain 11-20 only.

Summary: Now I know that this was very extensive talk with a ton of details but if you took notes and refer back to it then I think things will somewhat make more sense and come together that way. The best thing we can do is try to adhere to guidelines to make sure that we don’t miss anything. Sometimes it could be particularly difficult to manage patients that don’t or can’t come to their appointments regularly and you may sometimes have to give them bad news and what not so overall it is not always happy moments we face but the best we can do is try to give them the best care possible to avoid complications and have the patient deliver a healthy baby. Thank you for listening to me once again and hopefully I’ll be back again soon on another talk on an OB/GYN related topic soon. Thank you very much. 

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Conclusion: Now we conclude episode number 147, “Routine Prenatal Care.” Future Dr. Salimi gave an excellent summary of the care provided during the different trimesters of pregnancy. Remember to collect a detailed history, perform a comprehensive physical exam, and order the labs to rule out pre-existing conditions that could interfere with pregnancy or detect complications early to start timely interventions or refer to a higher level of care. 

This week we thank Hector Arreaza, Elika Salimi, and Verna Marquez. Audio editing by Adrianne Silva.

Even without trying, every night you go to bed a little wiser. Thanks for listening to Rio Bravo qWeek Podcast. We want to hear from you, send us an email at RioBravoqWeek@clinicasierravista.org, or visit our website riobravofmrp.org/qweek. See you next week! 

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References:

1. AAP, ACOG. Guidelines for Perinatal Care. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Women's Health Care Physicians; 2017
2. Zolotor AJ, Carlough MC. Update on prenatal care. Am Fam Physician. 2014; 89(3): p.199-208. pmid: 24506122.
3. World Health Organization. WHO Recommendations on Antenatal Care for a Positive Pregnancy Experience. World Health Organization; 2016
4. Workowski KA, Bachmann LH, Chan PA, et al. Sexually Transmitted Infections Treatment Guidelines, 2021. MMWR. Recommendations and Reports. 2021; 70(4): p.1-187. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.rr7004a1
5. Murray ML, Huelsmann G, Koperski N. Essentials of Fetal and Uterine Monitoring. Springer Publishing Company; 2018
6. Royalty-free music used for this episode: Space Orbit by Scott Holmes, downloaded on July 20, 2022 from https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes/.

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