Tests during pregnancy

When you're planning on having a baby or have been lucky enough to get pregnant, tests and examination become part of routine life. In fact you may feel like you spend most of your time either doing tests or collecting results. For those of us without medical training or knowledge understanding why these tests are needed and how to read the results can be confusing.

You can find a useful table here that shows what tests need to be done when and why.

Through out your pregnancy you will have blood tested several times. These are done to gather information about your health and that of your baby. Here you can find information about some of the tests you will need.

Urine tests are also common. Read more here.

You may also need to have a vaginal examination to check for bacteria in the vagina. Read more here.

As always, if you have any doubts or questions talk to your Doctor.

When the waters break

As you near the end of your pregnancy chances are you start to think about what happens when baby finally decides to make his grand entrance into the world. For those of you that watch movies you probably imagine a dramatic gushing of water that creates a huge puddle. In reality though it's often not quite so dramatic.

When my waters broke with my son I was only 8 months gone and having gotten up and gone to the bathroom to pee found that the dripping wouldn't stop. My first thought was 'great, another joy of pregnancy. I've lost control of my bladder completely now'. When 30 minutes later I was still dripping I decided it was best to call my Doctor to make sure everything was normal. He yelled at me to get my butt to the hospital if I didn't want to give birth on my toilet.
I had no idea my waters had broken and was calm as felt no pain what so ever. Another 30 minutes passed and by the time my husband arrived my belly had dropped and contractions had started. Still just slowly dripping though. It was only when I got to the hospital and the Doctor visited my that my waters gushed out.

As every pregnancy is different so is the breaking of the waters. This article at Babycenter.com gives some great examples of how waters broke for other mums.

My advice is, if in doubt call your Doctor.

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