I am curious about some things I came across in the university hospital the other day when I went to visit my mom. I saw a clinic on the 4th floor called the ante-natal clinic I have heard of prenatal but what is a antenatal clinic? What do they do there? You see lots of interesting things at the university, that's for sure. Does anyone know or has heard of this type of clinic? Is it an abortion clinic maybe?
An antenatal clinic would one that specializes in care of the fetus/baby while in the mother's womb. It would employ doctors and nurses who are trained to be able to identify problems with the baby and treat them before it is even born. There are some issues that need attention before birth, so they may have to go in and operate possibly on the fetus, such as a heart defect. It isn't an abortion clinic, however, since it is specialized in the health of the baby.
Those clinics are very good to have when there are type 1 diabetic women who are pregnant. I should know… I was one of them. I went there for my care and the staff was wonderful. It was comforting knowing that they were specialized in baby care before the baby is born so that they were right on track keeping up on what was going on. I had a couple of ultrasounds and amniocentesis done to check for any problems. The staff helped me too so they actually had me and my baby both as patients. I started having early signs of preeclampsia in my 35 week and they took a 24 hour urine to see if I was having it. I ended up with a C-section since my blood pressure was elevating. So I highly recommend clinics like this.