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Prenatal care refers to the medical care recommended for women before and during pregnancy. The aim of good prenatal care is to detect any potential problems early, to prevent them if possible (through recommendations on adequate nutrition, exercise, vitamin intake etc), and to direct the woman to appropriate specialists, hospitals, etc. if necessary. The availability of routine prenatal care has played a part in reducing maternal death rates and miscarriages as well as birth defects, low birth weight, and other preventable infant problems in the developed world.

While availability of prenatal care has considerable personal health and social benefits, socioeconomic problems prevent its universal adoption in many developed as well as developing nations.

Studies in Canada and the United States have shown that communities in rural areas as well as minorities are less likely to have available prenatal care and also have higher rates of infant mortality and miscarriage.

One prenatal practice is for the expecting mother to consume vitamins with at least 400 mcg of folic acid to help prevent neural tube defects.

Prenatal care generally consists of:

• monthly visits during the first two trimesters (from week 1-28)
• biweekly from 28 to week 36 of pregnancy
• weekly after week 36 (delivery at week 38-40)

Obstetric ultrasounds are most commonly performed during the second trimester at approximately week 20. Ultrasounds are considered relatively safe and have been used for over 35 years for monitoring pregnancy.

Among other things, ultrasounds are used to:

• Diagnose pregnancy (uncommon)
• Check for multiple fetuses
• Determine the sex of the fetus
• Assess possible risks to the mother (e.g., miscarriage, blighted ovum, ectopic pregnancy, or a molar pregnancy condition)
• Check for fetal malformation (e.g., club foot, spina bifida, cleft palate, clenched fists)
• Determine if an intrauterine growth retardation condition exists
• Note the development of fetal body parts (e.g., heart, brain, liver, stomach, skull, other bones)
• Check the amniotic fluid and umbilical cord for possible problems
• Determine due date (based on measurements and relative developmental progress)

Generally an ultrasound is ordered whenever an abnormality is suspected or along a schedule similar to the following:

• 7 weeks - confirm pregnancy, ensure that it’s neither molar or ectopic, determine due date
• 13-14 weeks (some areas) - evaluate the possibility of Down Syndrome
• 18-20 weeks - see the expanded list above
• 34 weeks (some areas) - evaluate size, verify placental position

Bedbugs may be erroneously associated with filth in the mistaken notion that this attracts them. However, severe infestations are often associated with poor housekeeping and clutter. Bedbugs are attracted by exhaled carbon dioxide and body heat, not by dirt, and they feed on blood, not waste. In short, the cleanliness of their environments has effect on the control of bedbugs but, unlike , does not have a direct effect on bedbugs as they feed on their hosts and not on waste. Good housekeeping in association with proper preparation and mechanical removal by vacuuming will certainly assist in control..

There are several means by which dwellings can become infested with bedbugs. People can often acquire bedbugs at hotels, motels, and bed-and-breakfasts, as a result of increased domestic and international tourism, and bring them back to their homes in their luggage. They also can pick them up by inadvertently bringing infested furniture or used clothing to their household. If someone is in a place that is severely infested, bedbugs may actually crawl onto and be carried by people’s clothing, although this is atypical behavior — except in the case of severe infestations, bedbugs are not usually carried from place to place by people on clothing they are currently wearing. Finally, bedbugs may travel between units in multi-unit dwellings (such as condominiums and apartment buildings), after being originally brought into the building by one of the above routes. This spread between units is dependent in part on the degree of infestation, on the material used to partition units (concrete is a more effective barrier to the spread of the infestation), and whether infested items are dragged through common areas while being disposed of, resulting in the shedding of bedbugs and bedbug eggs while being dragged. In some exceptional cases, the detection of bedbug hiding places can be aided by the use of dogs that have been trained to signal finding the insects by their scent much as dogs are trained to find drugs or explosives. A trained team (dog and handler) can detect and pin point a bedbug infestation within minutes. This is a fairly costly service that is not used in the majority of cases, but can be very useful in difficult case