What are the effects of prenatal care on the fetus?

Real physiological growth support, long-term neuropsychological development blessing, and proactive adverse risk prevention and control.

Don’t think that these divisions are just concepts on paper. Last month, I just gave birth to a pregnant mother who had her first formal prenatal checkup at 28 weeks. She used to watch short videos at home to support her fetus, and did not control her sugar or weight. The glucose tolerance test directly diagnosed gestational diabetes. The B-ultrasound showed that the fetus was 11 days older than the same gestational age, and the thickness of subcutaneous fat was much higher than the average. If it continues, there is a high probability that she will give birth to a macrosomia, and the risk of hypoglycemia and respiratory distress after birth will increase several times. Later, she followed our nutrition clinic to customize three meals a day and did 30 minutes of low-intensity exercise every day. After two weeks, her blood sugar stabilized within the normal range. Finally, the baby was born normally at 39 weeks, weighing 6 pounds and 7 taels. All physiological indicators were normal, and even common neonatal hypoglycemia did not occur.

Many people's understanding of prenatal care is at the level of "helping children grow well". In fact, its impact goes far beyond these visible physiological indicators. When we give regular guidance to pregnant mothers who are over 20 weeks pregnant, we always mention the content of emotional regulation and light interactive prenatal education - either the "listening to classical music to become a genius" that is so popular on the Internet, or the kind of soft music that is fixed for about 10 minutes a day, and family members talking to the belly. Low-intensity interaction. The cases followed for three years in our department show that if this type of care is continued throughout pregnancy, the mood of the pregnant mother has been relatively stable. The child has fewer startle reactions after birth and is less difficult to put to sleep. When undergoing developmental screening at around two years old, the social responsiveness is generally better than that of children who did not receive such care. However, there are now different research conclusions in this field. Many scholars believe that these differences are more caused by family parenting habits after birth and cannot be directly attributed to prenatal intervention. We will not overexaggerate this part of the role in clinical practice, but we can indeed observe a positive correlation trend.

The most uncontroversial role recognized by everyone is the risk prevention and control value of prenatal care. There was a pregnant mother with a second child. Her first child was born prematurely at 26 weeks due to severe preeclampsia. The child was still not saved after living in an incubator for two months. This child came to our high-risk project as soon as she was pregnant. She started taking aspirin and supplements as directed by the doctor from the 12th week. Calcium, blood pressure, and urine protein were measured every week. We also gave her regular guidance on diet and rest. Finally, she survived until 39 weeks and gave birth naturally. The baby weighed 5 pounds and 9 taels. All indicators were excellent, and she did not even have the common problem of lung hypoplasia in premature births. If she had not received systematic prenatal care, she would most likely have made the same mistake as her previous pregnancy.

In fact, there is no clear boundary between these types of effects. If you control the basic indicators such as blood sugar and blood pressure, the child's growth and development will be stable, the intrauterine environment will be more comfortable, neurological development will naturally be smoother, and the probability of sudden risks will also be reduced. To put it bluntly, prenatal care is not a mystery, it is just to provide reliable guidance for pregnant mothers and lay a few more layers of safety cushions for the little one in the belly.