What will happen at the first prenatal visit?

Your first visit may be as long as an hour. Your provider will ask for history of your health, the father’s health, your family’s health, and the health of the father’s family. This information can help give your provider an idea of any problems you might have during your pregnancy. You will have a physical exam, including checks of your height, weight and blood pressure and a pelvic exam. You will have a Pap test, urine tests, blood tests, tuberculosis tests, and cultures of the cervix and vagina. Your provider will calculate your due date and the age of your baby. How the pregnancy is going can be judged as normal or abnormal only when the age of your baby is clearly known. If your periods were regular before you became pregnant, and you are sure of the first day of your last period, your due date will be estimated to be 40 weeks from the day you started your last period. Your provider will talk to you about how to stay healthy during your pregnancy.