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Prenatal Care Visits in the Third Trimester


Prenatal visits to your health care provider may be scheduled more frequently.

You can expect your health care provider to check the following:
  • Your weight, blood pressure, and urine
  • Fetal heartbeat
  • Size and position of the fetus
  • Height of the fundus
  • Your feet, hands, ankles, wrists, and face for swelling
  • Any varicose veins and/or hemorrhoids

After the 32nd week of pregnancy, your health care provider will also check:
  • How often you've been experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions
  • Whether or not the baby's head has “engaged” (whether her head has settled deeply into your pelvis)
  • The state of your cervix
Always feel free to call your health care provider if you have any questions or concerns. Find out how to reach her after hours, and whether there is a special time during the day that is set aside for phone calls. If you have any symptoms that seem unusual, or very sudden, be sure to call your health care provider right away. Refer to these warning signs for symptoms that indicate there may be a medical problem. While there is no need to panic, the best treatment starts with communication!

Continue to "Planning for Bringing Baby Home" journey to parenthood

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Most recent page update: 1/30/2008
© 2010 Childbirth Connection. All rights reserved.

Childbirth Connection is a national not-for-profit organization founded in 1918 as Maternity Center Association. Our mission is to improve the quality of maternity care through research, education, advocacy and policy. Childbirth Connection promotes safe, effective and satisfying evidence-based maternity care and is a voice for the needs and interests of childbearing families.
News and Features

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Help Transform Maternity Care! Please join our efforts to make quality maternity care a top national priority. Your support will help make the transformation possible.
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Journey to Parenthood
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