You'll be curious to learn about your unborn child's growth during your pregnancy. Prenatal testing can provide important details about the health of your unborn child as well as your own. 

Find out the advantages and hazards of every screening or test that your doctor suggests. Prenatal testing, according to most parents, help them feel more at ease and ready for the arrival of their kid. However, you have the option to accept or reject a test.

Routine Screenings & Other Tests

Your first visit to the obstetrician should have included a full physical, urine (pee) test, and blood test to check for things like:

• Rh factor and blood type. You might develop antibodies that could harm your fetus if your spouse has Rh positive blood and yours is Rh negative. An injectable administered around the 28th week of pregnancy can stop this from happening. 
• anemia, or a low level of red blood cells
• HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B 
• Immunity to varicella and rubella, the diseases that cause chickenpox and German measles; • Cystic fibrosis and spinal muscular atrophy. Even in cases where there is no family history, health care practitioners now frequently offer to screen for these illnesses. 

Up until delivery, you may anticipate having your blood pressure, weight, and urine tested at each (or nearly every) visit. Preeclampsia, or severely elevated blood pressure, and gestational diabetes are two disorders that can be detected by these tests.

Depending on a number of factors, including your age, health, and family medical history, you may be offered additional testing throughout the third trimester. These may consist of:

Ultrasound

Using sound waves to create images that depict the baby's shape and location inside the uterus, an ultrasound is a safe and painless test. Third-trimester ultrasonography (UTR) can be used to look at the placenta and is occasionally used in a test called a biophysical profile (BPP) to check the baby's oxygenation levels. In the third trimester, women carrying high-risk pregnancies might undergo several ultrasound examinations.

Glucose screening

This test looks for gestational diabetes, a temporary type of the disease that affects certain pregnant women and can have negative effects on the unborn child's health, particularly if left untreated. After consuming a sugary beverage, your blood will be drawn an hour later to measure your glucose levels.

Group B strep test

The doctor will examine you to check for group B streptococcus (GBS) infection between weeks 35 and 37. Although many women's vaginas naturally contain GBS germs, these bacteria can cause catastrophic illnesses in babies. The vagina and rectum will be swabbed during this test. If the test is positive, the mother has to travel to the hospital as soon as labor starts so that intravenous (IV) antibiotics can be begun to prevent infection in the unborn child.

Nonstress test

When a health care professional wants to make sure the fetus is healthy, such as in a high-risk pregnancy or after the due date has past, they typically do a nonstress test (NST). The purpose of the test is to determine whether the infant is receiving adequate oxygen and reacts to stimulation normally. If the baby doesn't react, further testing may be necessary, although they aren't necessarily in danger.

Contraction stress test

To find out how contractions affect the fetal heart rate, this test stimulates the uterus with pitocin, a synthetic version of oxytocin, a hormone secreted during birthing. It can determine whether the baby's heart rate is stable throughout contractions and may be advised if a previous test revealed an issue.

Recall that you are offered exams, and you are free to decline them.

Consult with your healthcare professional to determine the appropriate tests for you. Discuss the reasons behind the recommendation, the advantages and disadvantages of the test, and what the results can and cannot reveal.

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