Care Plans for Pregnancy

The period of pregnancy requires the patient to collaborate with a care provider to ensure that they get personalized care. The pregnancy care plans help to ensure the mother and the child’s well-being during the entire pregnancy. Women undergo physical, mental, and emotional changes during the period that can be challenging to handle without a personalized care plan. The advanced nurse practitioner has a role of observing the behavior of the pregnant patients discard any physical or mental health issue. The essay focuses on a pregnancy care plan for a select case study.

The selected case Study is;

Case Study 1:

On 1-15-13, you see a 25-year-old Caucasian female in the clinic because she believes she’s pregnant. Her LMP was 12-1-12. Her home pregnancy test was positive, and she has had nausea and breast tenderness.

The estimated date of delivery for the patient is 9-8-2013 (September 8, 2013). I dated the pregnancy by the Last Menstrual Period in which the delivery date should be approximate of 40 weeks from the start of the last menstrual period. The patient requires undergoing several clinical guidelines for procedures and screenings before the date of delivery.

The failure to go for the antenatal screenings and also to adhere to the procedures is detrimental to the health of the mother and the child. The first prenatal screening tests include a fetal ultrasound and maternal blood tests. The tests help to establish the risk of the fetus having birth defects. The second prenatal screening tests include blood tests called multiple markers to provide information about the woman having the risk of a baby with certain genetic conditions and birth defects (Schuiling & Likis, 2013). The screening usually occurs in the 16th to 18th week. Other important procedures include amniocentesis, chorionic villus sampling (CVS), and fetal monitoring. Amniocentesis checks for chromosomal disorder and open neural tube defects. CVS checks for chromosomal abnormalities and other genetic abnormalities whereas fetal monitoring checks the heart rate and other functions. Glucose tolerance and glucose challenge test occur in the 24th to the 28th week of pregnancy and measures the glucose levels in the mother’s blood to identify gestational diabetes.

Antenatal information should be availed to pregnant women at the first contact with a health care professional, at booking by ten weeks, before or at 36 weeks, and at 38 weeks. The first contact with the health care professional involves the provision of guidelines on folic acid supplements, food hygiene, lifestyle advice, and antenatal screening. The screenings performed include hemoglobinopathies for the anomaly, Down’s syndrome, fetal nuchal translucency, maternal blood tests, and multiple markers. At the tenth week, the patient receives information about the development of the baby during pregnancy, nutrition and diet, and exercise for the pelvic floor exercises. Other related information includes place of birth, pregnancy care pathway, breastfeeding, antenatal classes, and all the antenatal screenings as well as the mental health issues (Tharpe, Farley & Jordan, 2013).

Before or at the 36th week, the patient receives breastfeeding information, the preparation for labor and birth, recognition of active labor, care of the new baby, vitamin K prophylaxis, newborn screening tests, and awareness of the baby blues. At the 38th week, the patient receives information about the management of the prolonged pregnancy (Tharpe, Farley & Jordan, 2013). Throughout the pregnancy period, the patient receives guidance on the drugs to take and those to avoid. The patient ought to avoid anticonvulsants, alcohol, and the recreational drugs. Strict adherence to the guidelines ensures that the patient and her child are healthy throughout the gestation period.

References

Schuiling, K. D., & Likis, F. E. (2013) Women’s gynecologic health (2nd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Chapter 7, "Diagnosis of Pregnancy at the Gynecologic Visit" (pp. 143–156)

Tharpe, N. L., Farley, C., & Jordan, R. G. (2013) Clinical Practice Guidelines for Midwifery & Women’s health (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Chapter 2, "Care of the Woman during Pregnancy" (pp. 41–81)

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at Melda Research in professional research proposal writing services if you need a similar paper you can place your order for a custom research paper from research paper services .