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Prenatal care: Third-trimester visits
Resume pelvic exams
As your due date approaches, your prenatal visits may include pelvic exams. These exams help your health care provider:
- Check the baby's position. Near the end of pregnancy, your health care provider can feel your baby's head in your lower abdomen or at the top of the birth canal. If your baby is positioned headfirst, you're good to go. If your baby is positioned rump-first or feet-first (breech), your health care provider may recommend trying to turn the baby by applying pressure to your abdomen. This procedure is called an external version. If your baby remains in a breech position, you may need a C-section delivery.
- Detect cervical changes. As your body prepares for birth, your cervix will begin to soften, open (dilate) and thin (efface). Progress is typically expressed in centimeters (cm) and percentages. For example, your cervix may be 3 centimeters dilated and 30 percent effaced. When you're ready to push your baby out, your cervix will be 10 centimeters dilated and 100 percent effaced. Sometimes effacement is also measured in centimeters, to reflect the thickness of the cervical tissue. Resist the temptation to put much stock in these numbers, though. You may be dilated to 3 centimeters for weeks — or you may go into labor without any dilation or effacement at all.
Keep asking questions
You may have plenty of questions as your due date approaches. Is it OK to have sex? How will I know when I'm in labor? What's the best way to manage the pain? Ask away! Also discuss a birthing plan with your health care provider. Feeling prepared can help calm your nerves before delivery.
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- Lockwood C, et al. The initial prenatal assessment and routine prenatal care. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Feb. 17, 2010.
- You and your baby: Prenatal care, labor and delivery, and postpartum care. American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. http://www.acog.org/publications/patient_education/ab005.cfm. Accessed Feb. 19, 2010.
- Cunningham FG, et al. Prenatal care. In: Cunningham FG, et al. Williams Obstetrics. 22nd ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.; 2005. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=6052187. Accessed Feb. 19, 2010.
- Puopolo KM, et al. Group B streptococcal infection in pregnant women. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Feb. 19, 2010.
- Harms RW (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. March 3, 2010.
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