Dr Sh­erne Kalloo

Con­sul­tant Ob­ste­tri­cian

and Gy­nae­col­o­gist

Preg­nan­cy is a re­mark­able jour­ney, but it is al­so a time when care­ful med­ical at­ten­tion is es­sen­tial to pro­tect both moth­er and ba­by. An­te­na­tal care is not just about rou­tine vis­its—it is about time­ly screen­ing, ear­ly de­tec­tion, and pre­ven­tion of com­pli­ca­tions that may oth­er­wise go un­no­ticed. It’s a well-known fact that pa­tients with no an­te­na­tal care have in­creased mor­bid­i­ty and mor­tal­i­ty.

One of the most im­por­tant pil­lars of an­te­na­tal care is blood test­ing. These tests are not done ar­bi­trar­i­ly; they pro­vide crit­i­cal in­for­ma­tion about a moth­er’s health. Ear­ly in preg­nan­cy, blood tests help de­ter­mine blood group and Rh sta­tus, screen for in­fec­tions and thy­roid ab­nor­mal­i­ties, and as­sess haemo­glo­bin lev­els.

As preg­nan­cy pro­gress­es, re­peat tests may be nec­es­sary to mon­i­tor changes. For ex­am­ple, de­clin­ing iron lev­els can in­di­cate anaemia, while ab­nor­mal sug­ar lev­els may sig­nal ges­ta­tion­al di­a­betes. With­out these tests, many con­di­tions would re­main silent un­til they be­come dan­ger­ous.

Equal­ly im­por­tant is the tim­ing of ul­tra­sounds. Ul­tra­sound scans are not sim­ply for view­ing the ba­by—they serve very spe­cif­ic med­ical pur­pos­es at dif­fer­ent stages. An ear­ly scan con­firms the preg­nan­cy lo­ca­tion and es­ti­mates the due date. A mid-preg­nan­cy scan, of­ten around 18–22 weeks, care­ful­ly ex­am­ines the ba­by’s anato­my to de­tect struc­tur­al ab­nor­mal­i­ties. Lat­er scans as­sess growth, am­ni­ot­ic flu­id, and pla­cen­tal po­si­tion. Miss­ing or de­lay­ing these scans can mean miss­ing vi­tal op­por­tu­ni­ties for ear­ly in­ter­ven­tion or plan­ning.

Among the most com­mon but un­der­es­ti­mat­ed is­sues in preg­nan­cy is anaemia. Of­ten re­ferred to as a “silent” con­di­tion, anaemia oc­curs when there is a low lev­el of haemo­glo­bin in the blood, re­duc­ing the body’s abil­i­ty to car­ry oxy­gen. Many women may feel on­ly mild fa­tigue and dis­miss it as a nor­mal part of preg­nan­cy. How­ev­er, un­treat­ed anaemia can lead to se­ri­ous com­pli­ca­tions, in­clud­ing pre­ma­ture de­liv­ery, low birth weight, and in­creased risk of bleed­ing dur­ing child­birth. Iron sup­ple­men­ta­tion, a bal­anced di­et, and reg­u­lar blood mon­i­tor­ing are es­sen­tial to pre­vent this con­di­tion from es­ca­lat­ing.

An­oth­er con­di­tion that re­quires close at­ten­tion is high blood pres­sure in preg­nan­cy, al­so known as preg­nan­cy-in­duced hy­per­ten­sion or preeclamp­sia.

In sim­ple terms, this oc­curs when the force of blood against the blood ves­sel walls is con­sis­tent­ly too high. Some women de­vel­op this con­di­tion for the first time dur­ing preg­nan­cy. If left unchecked, it can progress to preeclamp­sia, a po­ten­tial­ly life-threat­en­ing dis­or­der af­fect­ing both moth­er and ba­by. Warn­ing signs may in­clude swelling, headaches, or vi­su­al dis­tur­bances, but in many cas­es, there are no ob­vi­ous symp­toms. This is why rou­tine blood pres­sure and urine checks at every an­te­na­tal vis­it are crit­i­cal—they al­low for ear­ly de­tec­tion and man­age­ment.

Close­ly re­lat­ed to this is ges­ta­tion­al di­a­betes, a form of di­a­betes that de­vel­ops dur­ing preg­nan­cy. It oc­curs when the body can­not ef­fec­tive­ly use in­sulin, lead­ing to el­e­vat­ed blood sug­ar lev­els. Many women are sur­prised to learn they have it, as it of­ten presents with­out symp­toms. How­ev­er, the risks are sig­nif­i­cant: larg­er-than-nor­mal ba­bies, dif­fi­cult de­liv­er­ies, in­creased risk of cae­sare­an sec­tions and a high­er like­li­hood of de­vel­op­ing type 2 di­a­betes lat­er in life.

Screen­ing typ­i­cal­ly takes place in the first, sec­ond and third trimesters with a glu­cose tol­er­ance test.

The good news is that ges­ta­tion­al di­a­betes can of­ten be man­aged—and some­times pre­vent­ed—through lifestyle mea­sures. A bal­anced di­et rich in whole foods, reg­u­lar phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty (as ad­vised by a doc­tor), and main­tain­ing a healthy di­et be­fore and dur­ing preg­nan­cy all play a role. In some cas­es, med­ica­tion or in­sulin may be re­quired, but ear­ly di­ag­no­sis makes man­age­ment far more ef­fec­tive.

Ul­ti­mate­ly, an­te­na­tal care is about vig­i­lance and part­ner­ship be­tween the pa­tient and health­care provider. Blood tests, ul­tra­sounds, and rou­tine mon­i­tor­ing are not mere for­mal­i­ties—they are life­sav­ing tools. Con­di­tions like anaemia, hy­per­ten­sion, in­fec­tions and ges­ta­tion­al di­a­betes may de­vel­op qui­et­ly, but with prop­er screen­ing, they can be iden­ti­fied ear­ly and man­aged suc­cess­ful­ly.

Every ex­pec­tant moth­er de­serves a safe preg­nan­cy and a healthy ba­by. By un­der­stand­ing the pur­pose be­hind an­te­na­tal screen­ing and at­tend­ing reg­u­lar check-ups, women can take an ac­tive role in safe­guard­ing their health and that of their un­born child.

Dr Sherene Kalloo

MDW, MBBS, DGO, DM, FACOG

Spe­cial­ist Ob­ste­tri­cian & Gy­nae­col­o­gist