The second trimester of your pregnancy is crucial as you are slowly getting closer to your delivery date. There are some important tests that need to be conducted at this stage to take a look at the condition of the growing fetus and assess its health.

The major medical tests that you need to be conducted at this stage are as follows:

Ultrasound:

The ultrasound helps in seeing the number of babies in the womb as well as the position of the placenta. With the help of an ultrasound you can see the anatomy of the baby and check out for any abnormalities. The ultrasound can be done either through the vagina or over the abdomen. This, however, depends on the requirement.

The ultrasound test should be conducted only when there is any indication of some specification which includes bleeding from the vagina, presence of twins, abnormally large or small size of the uterus and other medical issues. As per the reports of the March of Dime, ultrasound tests pose no harm for both the mother and her child.

Maternal Serum Genetic Screen:

This test is conducted to find out any genetic disorders that the baby might be having and is conduced by taking a sample of the mother’s blood. This sort of a test is specially recommended for mothers who are 35 years and above. Also known as the Triple Screen Test, it helps in finding out the following three things:

1.      Unconjugated estriol

2.      Maternal alpha-fetoprotein (a substance produced in the baby’s liver. This can be detected in the mother’s blood)

3.      Human chorionic gonadatropin – Two hormones of pregnancy

These in turn help in detecting disorders like Down’s syndrome, etc. These tests should be conducted during the 16th–18th week of pregnancy. It is said, that in almost 75%to 80% of the cases this test helps in identifying the disorders.

Diabetes Screen, Glucola Screen and Post-Prandial Test

During pregnancy, many women are susceptible to diabetes. Under such cases, it is important that a glucose test is conducted to see the level of blood sugar in the blood. Pregnant women have a tendency to develop gestational diabetes. These tests are usually conducted 1 hour after drinking some drink containing 50 grams of sugar. Based on the results, the doctors may prescribe some remedy.

All in all, these tests are essential and need to be conducted at their proper time.

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