Office Visits

1st visit

At your first visit, we’ll take a complete patient history and confirm your pregnancy with a blood test.

2nd visit

At this second visit, we will perform a physical exam. This includes a pap smear, cervical cultures and initial pregnancy blood work. An early ultrasound to help confirm your delivery date will also be scheduled.

3rd visit

At this third visit, a physician will review all of your labs and ultrasound with you. A nuchal translucency, which measures the baby’s neck fold thickness, will be scheduled. This is an ultrasound that screens for Down Syndrome.

2nd trimester

You have the option of taking a quad screen test, which calculates the risk of certain congenital abnormalities. Please discuss this test with your physician.

An ultrasound will be performed to verify that your baby is developing appropriately.

• The glucose challenge will be administered and is a test for gestational diabetes. The challenge requires drinking a special glucola drink and waiting for one hour before blood is drawn. You must abstain from eating foods or drinking liquids that are high in sugar after dinner from the evening before up until blood is drawn.
• The second trimester is a good time to give us the following information:
• The name of the pediatrician or doctor who will care for your new baby
• Whether you wish to participate in prenatal classes
• Whether you will breast or bottle feed your baby
• Whether you will be doing cord blood collection at delivery
• We also need to know what type of pain medication you would prefer to use at delivery and if you wish to have a sterilization after delivery. Please feel free to discuss these with your physician or nurse practitioner. This is also a good time to sign up for prenatal classes.

3rd trimester

If you didn’t take the glucose challenge in the 2nd trimester described above, you may take it up until the 28th week. If you are RH negative, please make sure that you are scheduled for your rhogam injection at 28 weeks. This is also the optimal time to perform a 3D and 4Dultrasound of your baby.

This is a good time to pre-register at the hospital for your delivery and to take a tour.

A Group B strep vaginal culture will be taken to screen for maternal or infant infection. Your physician will share more information with you.