A story that causes shock: a young woman died in the perinatal center in Simferopol. She was six months pregnant. She would have turned 22 in five days.
The situation becomes even worse when you study the details of this story. It is known that the day before she – with a high temperature – was brought by ambulance to another hospital. Where, according to relatives, in the middle of the night they literally “asked” to go outside, without even looking that she was wearing light clothes. The fact that the expectant mother had no documents with her turned out to be much more important than the Hippocratic oath for the doctors: shortly before that she either lost them, or they were stolen.
Let’s leave the moral, ethical and legal aspects of this issue: now let the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor’s Office deal with them. Let’s forget about the story of a pregnant illegal Uzbek woman, whom without documents they did not really want to accept in the maternity hospital of Vladivostok, and for which the whole progressive community hastened to intercede at that time. Let’s talk about something else: how to protect yourself from such situations.
So you are in happy anticipation. Of course, do not sit at home, you are a modern woman and do not consider pregnancy a disease that chases you to bed for nine months. But at the same time, you are a sane person. And you understand that anything can happen at any moment. Therefore, our advice. Until the birth, you should always have three documents with you: a passport, an OMS policy and an exchange card issued by the antenatal clinic. Of course, not empty, but with all the tests and examinations that you had time to go through.
In general, exchange is perhaps the most important document for a future mother. Let us explain: a woman who does not have one is considered unexamined. And even if she is at least three times healthy, she will not be taken to an ordinary maternity hospital. Exclusively to the observational (read, infectious) department. Even if the nearest one is on the other side of the city. And how to prove that the tests have been passed? Bingo! Show exchange card. Therefore, we cherish this magic book like the apple of our eye.
And a few more words about how important it is to pass these tests and examinations on time. A woman can get into the observation even if there is an exchange card, but there are no records for her due date of pregnancy. So, just in case, let us remind you once again that at least by the end of the term it should be written in your card.
– Three times passed clinical blood test (when registering, in the second and third trimesters). And in the first and third trimesters, there is also a biochemical analysis, a coagulogram.
– Clinical analysis of urine – at each visit (at least seven times per pregnancy, if necessary – more often).
– Swabs twice – at the first visit and at 30 weeks.
– Your blood type and Rh factor. With negative rhesus – the results of the examination of the husband.
– Blood tests for syphilis – three times, for HIV – twice.
– Testing for the carriage of hepatitis B and C viruses – when registering and in the third trimester, as well as analysis for the presence of pathogens of the TORCH complex – at the first visit.
– Information that you are not sick with tuberculosis. Each region, of course, has its own rules, but in St. Petersburg, for example, if there is no fluorography or the results of an analysis replacing it, then mothers have a direct road not just to the observational department, but to the observational maternity hospital.
– The conclusion of the therapist. By the medical standard, you see this doctor at least twice. By the way, you will have to look at the dentist’s office twice, because caries is the same infection. Once you will be examined by an ENT and an ophthalmologist. But here, we add: although these consultations are mandatory, we are not aware of cases when a pregnant woman was put on observation due to the lack of consultation with an ophthalmologist.