"Antenatal care is essential for the total well being of the mother and the unborn child." Because it prepares the mother for birth and how to bring up her child, as well as ensuring everything goes right during the pregnancy.

As well as these standard checkups, they also check the foetal heartbeat, every visit after 16 weeks, using a stethoscope, pinard or hand held ultra-sound scan machine. A normal heartbeat is 110-115 beats per minute. They also do blood tests at 16 weeks, to check for the mothers immunity to rubella, rhesus factor, so that problems in future pregnancies can be avoided, Hepatitis B, so the baby can be giver treatment straight after birth, diabetes- to check for gestational diabetes, syphallis, so that treatment can be given, anaemia, iron supplements and folic acid may be needed, and finally the mothers blood type, incase a blood transfusion is needed during the birth. Tests for HIV status and foetal abnormalities are offered, but are not cumpolsary, and the signed consent of the mother is needed.

An image of the baby is built using an ultra-sound scan,(the abdomen is covered with a gel, to provide good contact and a hand held scanner is moved slowly over it) reflected sound waves produce an image of the baby and its internal organs onto a screen, information is taken from measurements and observing the images. Before 16 weeks, an early dating scan is done, yo give an exact age to the foetus, confirm a viable pregnancy and check the number of foetuses. And another scan is done at 20 weeks, the Anomaly scan, which checks for major abnormalities of the limbs or internal organs, size and sex of the foetus, the heartbeat, the umbilical chord and the placenta. Additional scans will be carried out during pregnancy, if necessary.

The checks described above make sure that the pregnancy all goes well, and that any problems are dealt with. However a major part of antenatal care is to prepare parents for parenting! This ensures that the baby is brought up well, and that the parents know what to do, making all of  their lives better. Women are given time off of work to attend antenatal classes. Antenatal classes provide parents with an opportunity to raise any questions and learn, as well as meeting other expectant parents; they learn about the development of their baby, labour; pain relief, possible complications and relaxation techniques. How to look after the new baby and breast feeding etc.

Woman get a midwife when they are pregnant, who has has specialist training to enable her to care for women before, during and after pregnancy. The midwife carries out routine tests, offers advice on caring for the baby, conducts the ‘booking-in’ visit, and books specialist tests, whilst being to prescribe some drugs. They can either be a Team Midwife, who works as part of a professional team in the community or a Maternity Unit Midwife, who works in a hospital.

Antenatal care is essential for a baby and the mother, because it prepares the mother for life with a baby making sure that the baby will be looked after properly, and any problems during pregnancy are picked up on.