By law, every woman has the right to free pregnancy monitoring in the antenatal clinic under the compulsory health insurance. To do this, you need to contact an obstetrician-gynecologist and register. How long is the best time to do this?
Several important tests are usually done in early pregnancy. The first of them is an ultrasound examination of the uterus, which is necessary to exclude an ectopic pregnancy. The sooner it is done, the better, since a tubal pregnancy is fraught with rupture of the fallopian tube, which can lead to serious consequences. In this regard, it is usually recommended to register no later than 8 obstetric weeks (6 weeks after conception). But registration with an antenatal clinic is not always convenient for a pregnant woman. Unfortunately, in most polyclinics there are often many hours of queues, tests have to be done on certain days in the early morning. Therefore, more and more often women choose private clinics. But supervision in a private clinic also has disadvantages: the price of contracts is often overstated, they include a lot of unnecessary tests and examinations, and paperwork for maternity leave without a contract is usually not issued. If you do not want to conclude a contract with a private doctor, you can combine paid supervision and registration in the district antenatal clinic. In this case, there is no special need for early registration, and one can proceed from what paperwork is needed from the antenatal clinic. To obtain a maternity sick leave, it is enough to register at 30 obstetric weeks (28 - for multiple pregnancies). An exchange card can also be obtained after 20 obstetric weeks, and it is not at all necessary to take all the tests indicated in it. To prevent a woman in labor from being sent to an infectious maternity hospital, it is necessary that the exchange card contains the results of tests for syphilis, hepatitis B and HIV. Accordingly, if there is no desire to regularly attend an antenatal clinic, starting from an early date, you can come once or twice at about 30 obstetric weeks, issue an exchange card and a sick leave. The situation with a generic certificate is more complicated. It is issued in the antenatal clinic only if the expectant mother is registered for at least 12 weeks. On the other hand, its absence will not affect childbirth in any way - in this case, the certificate is issued in the maternity hospital. Another incentive for early registration is the allowance, which is issued if the pregnancy starts before 16 obstetric weeks. The amount is small, but it may well be useful. It is advisable to observe the pregnancy almost from the very beginning. But the question of the period of registration should be decided on the basis of such aspects as financial condition, availability of free time, workload of the antenatal clinic at the place of residence and others.
