Prenatal Care

Find complete care for a healthy pregnancy at Adventist HealthCare.

What’s Prenatal Care?

Prenatal care is the healthcare you receive during pregnancy. It can help you feel your best and avoid problems during pregnancy or birth. During regular check-ups, your provider will:

• Answer questions, listen and provide support.
• Do physical exams to check your weight and overall health.
• Give diagnostic and screening tests, such as blood tests and imaging tests like ultrasound scans.
• Help you manage medical conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, lupus or HIV/AIDS.
• Offer care for conditions that can happen during pregnancy like gestational diabetes, heartburn, hemorrhoids, morning sickness and swelling.
• Track your baby’s growth and development.

Medication Management

Talk to your doctor before you stop or start taking any medications or nutritional supplements. Your provider may recommend you take vitamins with folic acid, which can help prevent birth defects.

Healthy Pregnancy Education

Have a healthy, happy pregnancy by following your doctor’s recommendations to:

• Avoid chemicals and harmful substances, including alcohol, drugs, tobacco and secondhand smoke.
• Drink plenty of water.
• Eat a nutritious diet.
• Follow an exercise plan.
• Get seven to nine hours of sleep each night.
• Limit caffeine.
• Prevent infections by washing your hands often.

Types of Pregnancy Care Providers

Choose to get prenatal care from:

• Family medicine doctor, a primary care provider with training to care for all members of the family
• Midwife, a healthcare professional who cares for low-risk pregnancies and helps women during labor and delivery
• Obstetrician, a physician who specializes in caring for women during pregnancy and childbirth
• Perinatologist, or maternal-fetal medicine specialist, a doctor who cares for high-risk pregnancies

Getting Ready to Breastfeed

If you plan to breastfeed your baby and have concerns, know you have access to Adventist HealthCare’s expert staff before and after you give birth. Rely on us to help you prepare to breastfeed and give you the support you need after your baby is born.

High-Risk Pregnancy Care

Feel peace of mind because your providers have experience caring for mothers and babies who may have a higher risk of complications during pregnancy or birth. Look to a team led by a perinatologist to address risk factors such as:

• Carrying twins, triplets or other multiples
• Drug or alcohol use during pregnancy
• Health conditions you had before pregnancy or that happen during pregnancy, such as gestational diabetes, high blood pressure (preeclampsia) or obesity
• Younger or older age of mother (teenage pregnancy or pregnancy in women age 35 or older)

High-Risk Pregnancy Specialist

Depending on your health, you may get care from a perinatologist, a maternal-fetal medicine expert who focuses on managing issues during pregnancy. Your doctor will provide close monitoring and skilled care during and after birth and delivery.

Support for Full-Term Delivery

A full-term pregnancy means you carry your baby for at least 37 weeks. Full-term delivery helps your baby’s growing organs reach full development before birth.

Adventist HealthCare will provide care and support to give your baby a strong start and avoid an elective induction or cesarean section (C-section) birth, if possible. Elective means a procedure isn’t needed for medical reasons.