During your pregnancy you can expect to be given at least two pregnancy blood tests. Many women wonder exactly what the physician is looking for when he or she takes the pregnancy blood tests and why they are given at two different intervals during the course of the pregnancy. Generally you will receive a blood test during the first and the second trimester of pregnancy, although those may not be the only blood tests that you are given, since other things may require looking into that will need to be done using blood screenings.
Your body changes, as does the body of your baby during the course of the pregnancy. There are optimal times to find out several things about your baby and you during the pregnancy. These tests are given to you in two separate trimesters because of the changes that your baby and your body will undergo. They make those time spans optimal for finding out certain things about your body.
The blood tests that you will undergo during your pregnancy are designed to measure two specific things but they may also be used to measure other things as well. The two basic blood tests that you will be give are called maternal serum testing. They will be used to measure a substance called pregnancy plasma protein, or PAPP-A. This protein, when found in higher levels may be an indicator of some abnormality with the chromosomes of the baby. Likewise the presence of another hormone that the placental offers in earlier stages of pregnancy, the hCG, or chorionic gonadotropin hormone is also an indicator of some chromosomal issues.
During the second three months of your pregnancy you may also be given certain blood tests that will help to determine if your baby is growing normally and the pregnancy is proceeding as planned. These second trimester blood tests will help to determine such things as Down’s syndrome, spina bifida, as well as other abnormal pregnancies.
While these blood tests are indicators in some cases of a problem with pregnancy, they may also be indicators of a very positive pregnancy, and will give you a heads up for things like multiple pregnancies, twins or triplets, as well as a due date that is in error since the blood levels of certain things change as your pregnancy progresses. At various intervals in your pregnancy certain substances will be present in your body in certain amounts. If these are lower than normal, or higher than normal they may indicate that certain things are going on, such as an impending multiple birth or other things that you will need to take under advisement and plan for.
It is important to have regular prenatal screenings, to follow the advice of your doctor and to assure that your pregnancy blood tests are taken as the physician indicates that they should be. These blood screenings are helpful and if given at the correct time will help you to keep an eye on your baby and your body and assure that you both stay healthy.
