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What Happens At My 16 Week Visit?

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We’re continuing the series on routine prenatal care.

With the bulk of the laboratory testing, physical exam and an established due date, routine obstetric care moves into a prevention, assessment and education cycle.

If you missed the first pregnancy visit, you can check out all the details here.

Did you download the free template to guide your first pregnancy visit?

If not, get the template here and be super prepared for that first pregnancy visit!

Overwhelmed by all the information about pregnancy? Looking for a checklist to guide to each pregnancy visit? Don’t expect your OB provider to do all the work – take control of your care and get these templates to guide every aspect of your pregnancy visits.

Make the investment in you and your baby here!

What are the components of the 14-16 week visit?

Let’s break it down!

Review of symptoms or patient concerns

These are any symptoms that have occurred since the last visit with the provider that the patient desires to discuss with the provider. An example is: “I think I have a yeast infection because there are white chunks coming out of my vagina and it itches.” Or, “I had a yeast infection two weeks ago but I used Monistat over the counter and my symptoms disappeared. Was this okay to do?”

Common questions for this visit include…

Most of these questions tell your provider that you’re feeling a little better than the last visit to the clinic and that you have had a return of energy and less fatigue, nausea and vomiting.

Because it’s a routine visit, the review of system questions are targeted to pregnancy unless the woman’s history or questions indicate investigation and follow up.

These questions are generally the same at every visit for the rest of pregnancy.

The questions are:

After the routine questions, I have some favorite questions that I like to ask during this visit. A lot of these questions are centered around a return to energy (although fatigue and extra naps are still very normal), return to normal appetite, and changes in sleep habits or patterns. I also like to review weight gain, nutrition and exercise.

These are some of the questions I ask at the 16 week visit:

The Screening

Screenings are usually completed in a number of fashions – sometimes by the tech asking the woman questions or by having the woman fill out a piece of paper.

Screening for psychosocial factors is an important part of prenatal care. Some risk factors (i.e. homelessness, loss of job, smoking, drinking, moving…) are present before prenatal care and some factors happen during the pregnancy or postpartum. To increase the number of opportunities to provide timely intervention, support or referral, ACOG & AAP (2017) recommend screening on a regular basis during prenatal care and documentation of each screening in the prenatal record.

If the woman has a history of depression or anxiety, reports new symptoms of either depression or anxiety, or is on medication for mood management, a screening is appropriate to assess her mood and risk. ACOG (2015) only recommends screening once during the perinatal period and once a the postpartum period.

Screening tools vary across practices and regions of the world. In the United States, the most common tools used for screening in pregnancy at the EPDS or the PHQ (PHQ-2 or PHQ-9).

It is always appropriate to ask that the provider review your screening results with you. A screening tool is very valuable. And sometimes a woman may feel uncomfortable talking about her mood even though she knows something isn’t feeling quite right. A positive screening is a flag for your provider to ask more questions and also review options for support, counseling or resources.

The Exam, Lab Testing, and Ultrasounds

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Exam

Once the pregnancy is established, the exam is limited to checking for normal progression of the pregnancy.

Ultrasound

Most 16 week visits do not include an ultrasound.

Ultrasounds “should be performed only when indicated and should be appropriately documented” (AAP & ACOG, 2017, p.176). Some obstetric providers perform an ultrasound at every prenatal visit. This is not the standard of care and is done for billing purposes (i.e. the provider can bill and code for more money if they perform an ultrasound at your visit).

Occasionally, it is difficult to find fetal heart tones with a doppler; in these cases, a limited ultrasound is done to confirm the fetal heart rate.

Laboratory testing

Lab testing at 16 weeks consists of catching up any outstanding labs from the initial OB visit and any pertinent genetic (carrier or aneuploidy) screening. Screenings vary greatly across the United States and the area of the country you live in. Insurance providers also vary. Ask your provider about the screening options they offer.

The Education

The is so much education to offer at 16 weeks. Most women have had a great return in energy and aren’t so tired. There is also a peak in eagerness to learn about the pregnancy and the interventions for the common discomforts of pregnancy. These are the common areas of education, but the sky really is the limit and varies greatly from provider to provider.

Constipation
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The first trimester is wrought with constipation because the hormone progesterone slows down the activity of the bowels. Well really, progesterone slows down everything – you are growing a baby! There are a lot of things you can do to manage constipation but learning about what causes constipation and how to incorporate some lifestyle changes can really make the difference in your bathroom time and help prevent hemorrhoids. One of the best handouts I’ve seen on constipation is from the American Urogynecologic Society.

Exercise

During pregnancy, and in the absence of a complication or guidance to exercise, ACOG & AAP (2017) recommend 30 minutes of moderate exercise most or all days during pregnancy. Exercise is so important that it’s one of the main factors implemented in women who are diagnosed with gestational diabetes in pregnancy. One of the best time to go for a brisk walk is right after you eat a meal. If you are walking after mealtime, your body doesn’t need insulin to get glucose into your cells! The only guidance ACOG & AAP offer regarding exercise is to avoid exercise with a high risk of falling or abdominal trauma (2017). Each exercise program should be weighed for risk factors.

The following warning signs are reasons to stop exercise:

I really like for woman to set goals for exercise during pregnancy. It’s a really long period of time to set up some good habits for after the baby arrives. I had one patient that made a goal to do 100 spin classes before her due date!

Fetal Movement

Most women feel the first little kicks of their baby (or babies) around 16 to 18 weeks. Fetal movement is a sign of fetal wellbeing. Movement varies from trimester to trimester. The Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists has one of the best handouts I’ve seen! In short, it’s good to review when a mama is going to first feel her baby move and what she should expect in the days and weeks to follow!

Round ligament pain
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Most women have had some round ligament pain by their 16 week visit, but many don’t that is what their pain was or what caused it. The pain is usually felt when the mama moves from sitting to standing quickly, rolls from one side to the other in bed, or has a puppy or other small child pounce on their lower belly. The pain is from the insertion points of the round ligament. The ligaments work to hold the uterus steady but there are always some movements of the uterus from side to side or front to back. Movement that trigger the sharp pain felt as ’round ligament pain’ are when the ligament or ligaments are strained or stretched too quickly.

Some good handouts for round ligament pain are here and here.

Weight gain and Nutrition

Weight is a vital sign. A provider should address a woman’s weight gain at every visit and give guidance and reassurance about her weight in relation to the guidelines below. This is an area where providers have a lot of room to improve. Most clinics have a nurse complete the prenatal education for a patient and then the woman doesn’t hear about her weight for the rest of her pregnancy.

Women can track their weight at home in between prenatal visits with a simple scale purchased from any store.

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Closely tied to weight gain is nutrition. The 2020-2025 dietary guidelines for pregnant and lactating women offer a nice chart for guidance on what to eat and how much.

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The guidelines also offer a nice chart on on the differences in calorie intake from trimester to trimester and also for lactation. The differences in lactation calories are important to note. The first 6 months have a lower calorie intake than the second 6 months to encourage loss of pregnancy weight. Return to pregnancy weight should be gradual and this table should be used as a guide.

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The Follow Up

Whew, we made it through all that information…but where do you go from here? The follow up information is just as important as the rest of the visit!

Here’s a list to review with a woman and her family before leaving the clinic!

Other goodies…

For providers and women. the Share with Women Handouts cannot be beat for many discomforts and conditions of pregnancy.

ACOG’s Resources for You (Frequently Asked Questions about pregnancy/women’s health) and Healthychildren.org‘s Prenatal Resources are also excellent resources.

For any recommendations about books to read during pregnancy or breastfeeding, a full list is available for free on the BOOKS & MORE page!

These are some great online childbirth resources to recommend for the mama starting to look at education about labor and birth.

These are some great podcast recommendations for pregnancy and parenting.

Whew! That’s a wrap. Remember, this is only a guide for the 16 week visit. Providers and patients work together to address the needs at the time of the visit. And, much of prenatal education is reviewed again and again!

Let me know!

Jamie

References

American Academy of Pediatrics, & American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2017). Guidelines for perinatal care (8th ed.). DOI 10.1002/14651858.CD003519.pub3

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2018). Screening for perinatal depression. Commitee opinion 757. https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-opinion/articles/2018/11/screening-for-perinatal-depression

King, T., Brucker, M., Kriebs, J., Fahey, J., Gegor, C., & Varney, H. (2015). Varney’s midwifery (5th ed.). Burlington, Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Overwhelmed by all the information about pregnancy? Looking for a checklist to guide to each pregnancy visit? Don’t expect your OB provider to do all the work – take control of your care and get these templates to guide every aspect of your pregnancy visits.

Make the investment in you and your baby here!

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