Second trimester
Visiting your healthcare professional during pregnancy is important to ensure that your baby’s growth and development is progressing well. Here is what to expect in the doctor’s office.
Throughout your second trimester, you'll be visiting your healthcare professional about once a month provided everything is progressing normally. Your healthcare professional will take your blood pressure and monitor other health indicators at each visit. Keep reading and learn more about what to expect during your second trimester of pregnancy.
Monitoring your weight gain
Healthcare professionals agree that one of the best things you can do to prepare for the delivery of a healthy baby is to eat right and gain the extra weight you'll need to support another life. Weight gain recommendations during pregnancy vary according to your pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI). If you started your pregnancy at an average weight for your height, you can ask your healthcare professional what this is; you should aim to gain 0.4 kg (3/4 of a pound) per week during your fourth, fifth and sixth months. Please consult your healthcare professional for personalized advice on how much weight you should gain.
Monitoring your fundal height
"Fundal" height is the distance in centimeters between the top of your uterus and your pubic bone. This monitoring usually starts about half way through your pregnancy, around 20 weeks along. By regularly measuring your belly throughout the second and third trimester, your healthcare professional is able to monitor the changing size of your uterus and the growth and position of your baby.
Tests in the 2nd trimester
Healthcare professional visits during pregnancy may include a number of tests that you may receive at your various check-ups. These are regular procedures, which can help your healthcare professional determine/monitor how you and your baby are progressing. Here's what you can expect:
Urinalysis:
This test measures the protein and sugar in your urine. It will detect excess protein, which can be a warning sign of Preeclampsia. Urinalysis is also routinely used to check for urinary tract infections and specific sexually transmitted infections that may affect you and your baby’s health, such as chlamydia.
Rhesus (Rh)-antibody-level test:
Most people have a specific protein in their blood called the Rh factor. Those who don't are Rh-negative. If a woman tests Rh-negative, the father of the child should also be tested for his Rh factor because problems can arise when an Rh-negative woman conceives a baby with an Rh-positive man. The tests are usually done about halfway through the pregnancy.
Ultrasound:
This test uses high-frequency sound waves to visualize the unborn baby. It's been used for more than 25 years. At 18-20 weeks of pregnancy, an “anatomical” ultrasound is used to monitor normal fetal development and check for potential abnormalities of your baby’s skeleton and major organs. This ultrasound can also determine the sex of your baby with very good accuracy.
-
0 -
0
-
0
-
0
-
0
Related articles
Pregnancy Week 37
Your baby tends to keep his head down, arms crossed, and legs folded up on his chest as there’s not much room to move around. He’ll be very glad to get out and stretch!
3 mins to read
Pregnancy week 20
Il se passe tellement de choses dans votre ventre cette semaine que vous voudriez peut-être faire une petite sieste après avoir lu à ce sujet !
3 mins to read
Pregnancy week 11
If you could look inside, you’d see thin little hairs developing on your baby’s eyebrows and above her lip. Don’t worry if you’re having a girl, they’re very fine!
3 mins to read
Pregnancy Week 25
Two more weeks left of the second trimester. You are gearing up for the home stretch. Your baby’s sense of touch is starting to blossom.
3 mins to read
Pregnancy week 6
Your baby’s growth is in overdrive right about now. So many exciting developments on such a tiny little being! Read more about this week.
3 mins to read
Pregnancy Week 31
As D-Day fast approaches, your little one is starting to turn upside down. What a clever baby! But you already knew that.
3 mins to read
Pregnancy week 14
Your baby is about the size of a grapefruit! Have you felt her move or kick yet? If not, you should be able to in the next weeks!
3 mins to read
Pregnancy week 36
From now until she makes her grand entrance, your baby will continue to put on about a half a pound per week, or around 220 g. She is already 47 cm long and weighs 2.7 kg!
3 mins to read
Pregnancy week 19
Your little lodger weighs around 335g now – weigh a grapefruit in your hand and that’s about how heavy she is.
3 mins to read
Pregnancy week 12
You’re coming to the end of your first trimester. Congratulations!
2 mins to read
Pregnancy week 24
Can you feel the baby reacting to noises and your caresses yet? Towards the end of the second trimester is when that starts to happen, so be on the lookout.
3 mins to read
Pregnancy week 7
Your baby is already a pretty impressive 15 mm long. Though you won’t feel it yet, she’s on the move.
2 mins to read
Pregnancy week 30
Every day, your baby develops more, getting ready to make an entrance into the world in just under 10 weeks. Has it gone fast or is the time creeping by for you? Every mum feels it differently.
2 mins to read
Pregnancy week 13
The start of your second trimester is the start of lots of new development milestones for your baby.
3 mins to read
Pregnancy week 35
In about a month, you’ll be holding that little bundle of joy in your arms. Until then, there’s still lots of polishing and refinement going on inside you. Read more about this week.
3 mins to read
Pregnancy Week 18
Lots of leaps and bounds happening in week 18, from nerve cells multiplying to the beginnings of fingerprints.
3 mins to read
Pregnancy week 40
Time’s up! If he hasn’t already, your baby will arrive in the next few days. If he doesn’t come out voluntarily, your doctor might give him a little nudge.
2 mins to read
Week 23
Your baby is now 29cm long from head to toe and weighs considerably over 550g. You have got around 16 more weeks to go!
3 mins to read
Pregnancy week 29
As you inch your way towards the finish line – you will be giving birth in about ten weeks! – your baby is still growing by leaps and bounds, even opening her eyes this week.
3 mins to read
