The next consultation is in week 6, they must come with a sample of their first urine in the morning. The general urine test is inexpensive, simple, and helps us detect infections, hormonal and nutritional imbalances, and even the risk of preeclampsia. It’s one of the most fabulous exams ever, please do it.

In week 12 we arrive at the study that I consider the most important study of the entire pregnancy, it is the first trimester screening, it is also known as combined screening, duo test, double marker and it can predict up to 90% if your baby has the risk of presenting Down syndrome or some other chromosomal problem… But that’s because to calculate the risk, three things are necessarily required.

• First: Mother’s blood test.
• Second: Measure the length of the fetus, its nasal bone and nuchal translucency
• Third: Carry out the study between weeks 11 and 13.

If it is not performed between weeks 11 and 13, the accuracy of the study drops, it is like doing a flip, it is 50% and if the blood biochemistry is not performed on the mother, then it is an ultrasound of the first trimester, simply take measurements and Measurements must always be taken complete.

You can’t imagine the number of patients who come to see me because they had a “First Trimester Screening” and they were charged in full! But in reality the only thing the doctor did was measure nuchal translucency. And at week 15! … And since it looked very big, he told them that the baby definitely had Down syndrome. And no, the truth is that no, because at week 12 the translucency should be less than 3 mm but as the baby grows, and if they measure it until week 15, it is logical that this space has already grown too much, and as I just said, the results of the blood study and all the measurements have to be entered into a system that calculates the risk accurately.

Please, you have to do all this, otherwise it is useless and it is the most important study of pregnancy.

Now the second trimester begins and we are going to leave a full month for the next consultation. At week 16, there we perform an obstetric control, another general urine test because an infection could appear at any time and only if there is a true suspicion of Down syndrome could we perform an amniocentesis.

In an amniocentesis we insert a needle through the mother’s abdominal wall to extract a little amniotic fluid. This fluid contains the baby’s cells that naturally come off the baby’s body and are floating inside the tummy. These cells are sent genetic study and can give us 100% certainty as to whether or not a syndrome exists. And if you like, you can also know the sex of your baby.

Although by week 15 it is very likely that we, through the ultrasound study, will know 100% if it is a boy or a girl.

From week 20 we can perform the morphological study, in general it takes us from 30 minutes to a full hour because measurements are taken of all the bones, we check that all the organs are present and functioning well, that there is no cleft lip, that their eyes and pupils can be seen clearly, complete fingers, well-differentiated brain, we can even check the little heart, although later there will be a study completely focused on your baby’s heart.

We have already reached the third trimester, in week 26 the essential thing is to make sure that we do not have gestational diabetes, since during pregnancy, even if you have never had diabetes or problems controlling sugar, all women are prone to having gestational diabetes.

And I get asked a lot if diabetes affects your baby, the truth is that it does. All that extra sugar will go to your baby, it will make the baby chubbier than normal, which will greatly increase the probability of having to have a cesarean section. All that sugar they received during pregnancy, they need it at birth. So what’s up? They cause hypoglycemia, a baby born to a diabetic mother during her life has a higher risk of developing diabetes, so yes, it does affect her baby.

Now, it’s not just about the baby. A mother with diabetes can also suffer from hyperglycemia and which can end in a diabetic coma, she could also develop blood pressure so high that it can cause damage to her eyes, hearing or even a stroke.

In Mexico, 15% of all deaths that exist are due to diabetes. In week 26 you have to take a sugar test no matter what, there is no other way, remember 15%!

As soon as we reach week 28, we recommend performing fetal echocardiography, this is the last specialized ultrasound that is performed on the baby and of course, we once again thoroughly review all of the baby’s organs, measurements and bones, but the most important thing is to ensure that the heart is well formed: Every atrium, every ventricle, every valve, every blood vessel that that little heart has. That the heart has a good position within your chest, that it has an adequate size for your baby’s chest, that there is no reflux of blood, that there are no communications between the ventricles, that all your atria and ventricles are of proportionate sizes .

If we detect a serious problem, we could not operate at this time, but we could prepare to have a cardiologist at the time of birth.

Now the consultations would have to be done every week. I recommend watching our videos on the signs of labor and if you notice any signs, contact your doctor immediately. Don’t worry if your baby moves a lot or you feel like he or she moves little, it is normal for these variations to exist, your baby is not sad or upset or angry with you. The real alarm signal is if you suddenly notice that she hasn’t moved at all all day or all night. If you notice that, go to the hospital and have fetal monitoring performed.