Prenatal Care Center

For the vast majority of families who are preparing for pregnancy or during pregnancy, choosing a prenatal care center with formal maternal and infant health care technical service qualifications is a more efficient and less risky option than relying solely on a single prenatal check-up in the hospital and self-explored care at home. This is the most intuitive feeling I have had as a midwife in a public maternal and child health hospital for 8 years and as a nursing supervisor in 3 private maternity and childbirth institutions for 5 years.

Last week, I met a 22-week-pregnant mother who lived in Xiaoshan, Hangzhou. She had no experience with her first pregnancy. She bought a fetal heart rate monitor at home but couldn't find the fetal heart rate. She was so scared that she went to the emergency room early in the morning at the slightest movement. The emergency room registration fee cost less than 1,000 yuan. She was also diagnosed with critical glucose tolerance because of her emotional fluctuations. Later, a community-based inclusive prenatal care center opened downstairs, offering free fetal heart rate testing twice a week, and a registered dietitian to provide sugar control meal plans. Last week, she came to get the report of passing the glucose tolerance test. The little girl at the nurse station cried while holding her arms, saying that she no longer had to worry about reading parenting posts every day and guessing about her physical condition.

Of course, there are indeed a lot of controversies about prenatal care centers. I have seen two extreme opinions. One is that this is purely an IQ tax, and all hospitals can do it. It is nothing more than spending more money to buy a service without queuing.； The other type exaggerates it so much that they start buying packages worth tens of thousands of dollars during the pregnancy preparation period, saying that they can guarantee a natural birth and a baby without any problems. In fact, both of these statements are quite biased.

Last year, the Zhejiang Provincial Maternal and Child Health Association conducted a sampling survey. The sample size was 2,100 pregnant mothers of different ages. Among the groups who received systematic intervention from formal prenatal care centers, the incidence rates of gestational hypertension and gestational diabetes were 17.2% lower than those who only received routine prenatal examinations + home care. The vaginal delivery rate was 21.8% higher, and the positive rate of postpartum depression screening was also nearly 10% lower. Points - This data does not mean how amazing the nursing center is. The essence is that it fills the gap between hospital prenatal check-ups and home care: obstetricians in the hospital have to see dozens or hundreds of numbers a day, and they have no time to tell you "how to adjust three meals a day if your blood sugar is half a bar higher today" and "where to press for edema in late pregnancy." These small, non-medical supports are precisely the core value of prenatal care centers.

Many people who choose a nursing center first look at the decoration. I advise you to check the qualification certificates at the front desk first. Do you have a maternal and infant health care technical service license issued by the health department? Do the nurses on duty have a nurse practitioner certificate? Do the nutritionists have a registered dietitian certificate? These three certificates are hard thresholds. Don't go there if one of them is missing. In the past two years, I came across an Internet celebrity nursing center opened in a business district. The decoration was more exquisite than a five-star hotel, and the sofas were all big-name brands. However, the "nurses" on the job had only been trained for half a month in sales. They performed perineal massage on a 30-week-pregnant mother. The incorrect technique directly induced regular uterine contractions. She was sent to the emergency room and almost gave birth prematurely. In the end, she lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation.

Don’t think that only the rich can go to prenatal care centers. Nowadays, many community-supported inclusive care centers only cost more than 30 yuan for fetal heart rate monitoring and half an hour of nutritional consultation, which is more cost-effective than buying a fetal heart rate monitor that is hundreds of dollars larger online. Especially for elderly pregnant mothers, those who have had a history of miscarriage or fetal arrest, they often have to wait in line for three or four hours to go to the hospital for a minor abnormality. The test can be completed in ten minutes at the nursing center. If there is a problem, they will help you contact the corresponding hospital as soon as possible. The time and energy saved are more valuable than anything else.

Of course, it doesn’t mean that everyone has to join in the fun. One of my colleagues is the deputy director of obstetrics. When she was pregnant, she never even entered the door of the nursing center. She can control all risks by herself and has sufficient medical resources around her. There is really no need to spend this money. There are also those who sell you a "100,000 yuan fetal protection package" and "a package that guarantees a normal delivery without side incision" for you, so you can just turn around and leave. Regular prenatal care centers will never give you any medical guarantees by patting your chest. They will only take your prenatal checkup report and adjust your diet and exercise plan little by little. At most, they will teach your husband how to rub your waist and practice Lamaze breathing with you. These are all small details and not so many fancy gimmicks.

I was on duty at the center yesterday afternoon. There was a 38-week-pregnant mother of her second child who was doing birthing ball exercises in the yoga room. Her husband sat on the mat next to her and learned to breathe. He was always smooth-talking after he failed to learn, which made the pregnant mother laugh. The nurse next to her handed them two cups of freshly squeezed cucumber juice and reminded them not to forget the delivery rehearsal next week. In fact, to put it bluntly, the hospital is your "safety line of defense" during pregnancy, taking care of all major situations that may go wrong, while a good prenatal care center is more like you have found a knowledgeable "best friend" to accompany you through these ten difficult months and make your life more comfortable.