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The first trimester: booking, the early tests, and the symptoms nobody warns you about

The first appointment does more than any other, which is why it is worth going early.

Lesson 1 of 5

12 min Text

What this lesson says

  • Booking early matters because most of what antenatal care prevents is decided early
  • Blood group, haemoglobin, blood sugar, blood pressure and infection screening are the usual first round
  • Folic acid and iron and folate supplementation are standard parts of antenatal care in India
  • Nausea, exhaustion and needing to pass urine often are ordinary and usually ease by the middle months
  • Ask what each test is for and what happens if it is abnormal, before the result comes

This is general education. It is not advice about your own situation, and it does not replace seeing a clinician.

Written lesson.
  1. 1. The first antenatal appointment, often called booking, does more work than any other. It establishes dates, records your history, takes a first set of measurements and blood tests, and starts whatever needs starting. Going early matters: much of what antenatal care can prevent depends on knowing about it in the first months rather than the last.
  2. 2. The usual first round of tests includes blood group and Rh type, a haemoglobin level, blood sugar, blood pressure, urine testing, and screening for infections including HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B. In India these are routine parts of antenatal care, and several are provided through public facilities. The reason to know the list is not to police it but so that you can ask which ones have been done and what they showed.
  3. 3. Ask what each test is for, and ask before the result comes: what would we do if this were abnormal? Knowing in advance that a particular result means a repeat in four weeks rather than something immediate is the difference between a manageable wait and a bad fortnight.
  4. 4. Supplementation is standard. Folic acid before and in early pregnancy, and iron and folic acid through pregnancy, are part of India's national programme, and calcium is commonly included. What you should take, in what amount and for how long is for the clinician looking after you; nothing on this page is a dose.
  5. 5. On how you feel: nausea and vomiting affect most pregnancies in the first months and usually ease by around the middle of the second trimester. Exhaustion of a kind that is hard to describe is extremely common. So is needing to pass urine far more often, tender breasts, and a sense of smell that has become an enemy. None of that means anything is wrong.
  6. 6. It stops being ordinary when you cannot keep fluids down at all, when you are losing weight, when you are passing very little urine, or when you feel faint. That is a recognised condition, it is treatable, and it is not something to endure quietly.
  7. 7. Two conversations worth having early rather than late: where you plan to give birth and what that will cost, and whether anything in your history or your family's changes what should be watched. Both are easier at eight weeks than at thirty.

All lessons in this course

  1. 1 The first trimester: booking, the early tests, and the symptoms nobody warns you about 12 min Reading now
  2. 2 The second trimester: scans, iron, and what the check-ups are for 11 min
  3. 3 The third trimester: monitoring, planning, and the decisions that come up 11 min
  4. 4 Warning signs at every stage, and what counts as today 9 min
  5. 5 Questions worth taking to each visit 9 min

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