Medical follow-up and administrative procedures: everything you need to know about the first trimester of pregnancy

Article published in August 2021

Well, it’s official, there is an extra line or a small cross that has just appeared on the pregnancy test that you feverishly hold between your fingers.

If you want the latter, in addition to the excitement you may start to feel (or panic?), You may already feel completely overwhelmed with what to do next. OK, there is an embryo in your womb, but what do we do now? Which healthcare professional to consult? When ? How many times? What will happen in the coming weeks?

Don’t panic, we will guide you step by step, quarter by quarter, throughout these nine long months of pregnancy, and even shortly thereafter.

What happens in the first month of pregnancy?

Since you were able to pee on a stick for 15 seconds without filling your fingers too much (the alternative solution could also be to pee in a glass and dip the stick in it, it’s less boring), you wonder where to start.

Do you need to make an appointment with a doctor? Declare pregnancy to social security? Are you already preparing for enrollment in kindergarten? Calm down, Jolly Jumper, we’re not there yet.

You must already ask your GP (or midwife) to prescribe a blood test to be performed in the laboratory, in order to officially confirm the pregnancy thanks to your level of βhCG hormone present in the blood.

In the process and even if it means having your veins vampirized, you could also get prescribed the full range of blood tests in pregnancy, with screening for HIV, syphilis, hepatitis … The healthcare professional who follows you will certainly benefit from determining the your blood type and check if you are already immune to toxoplasmosis and rubella, in short the total thing.

Don’t worry, the person you consult will know exactly what to prescribe! And if you want to wait a while for all the tests and only do what confirms your pregnancy, you can too.

If you haven’t already started taking folic acid even before conceiving the lump, now is also the time to get a prescription, as explained by Dr. Tania Totolidis, general practitioner:

“Folic acid is essential for the closure of the fetal neural tube. Ideally, we attack as soon as we have a conception project, to fill up on vitamins, because women are regularly deficient.

Once the pregnancy begins, they switch to a multivitamin that always contains vitamin B9 in addition to other things. We take it during pregnancy and even after! The baby will draw from our reserves, so it is no worse to replenish his supplies after delivery, especially if we are breastfeeding. “

As for your diet, your doctor or midwife can also give you advice on foods that are not recommended. This deserves an entire article to unravel the ideas received on the subject (which we certainly will!), But in the meantime you can already try to stop alcohol, tobacco and drugs. Don’t hesitate to ask for help, the healthcare professional can point you to the right people (addiction counseling, etc.) so that you are not alone in your area struggling and feeling guilty.

The second month of pregnancy, it starts to be a bit concrete

Well OK, you may not yet fully realize that you are pregnant (and it could happen much later, don’t worry), yet your body is starting to understand that there is someone crouching down.

You may have nausea, sore breasts, severe fatigue, and a sudden need to burn cars (no, that’s not pregnancy, it’s just society getting on your nerves) and maybe you whine frequently at any emotional commercial on TV. Nothing abnormal, it will pass (or not).

From a medical point of view, you must have made an appointment with your gynecologist, your doctor or your midwife, to have a first gynecological check-up. Performed between the 4th and 7th week of amenorrhea (or SA for friends, but basically it’s the number of weeks that have passed since the last cycle), you need to avoid losing it.

During this appointment you will be weighed and asked about your lifestyle: do you smoke? Do you practice any sport ? RN votes? Who is stronger between the hippo and the rhino? Your blood pressure will be measured, you will be asked for your medical history and that of your family, in order to determine whether or not your pregnancy should benefit from special monitoring.

This is also the time when your doctor will make an initial estimate of your early pregnancy and can also check, with the help of a possible pelvic ultrasound, that the embryo is well positioned in the endometrium.

From an administrative point of view, in addition to making an appointment for the following month to have your first real ultrasound and organizing the appointment for the 1st trimester, you are still a little comfortable, take advantage of it. Finally, as far as pregnancy disorders allow you what …

The third month of pregnancy and the first important dates

Go there, here, here, you have passed the first (long, so long) months of pregnancy. The risks of miscarriages decrease, you start to feel a little tight in your clothes, the car is on the way.

Level appointments and administrative declarations, serious things begin. Between 11 and 15 SA, you will be able to perform a dating ultrasound, which will determine with a little more precision the date of conception of the divine baby.

This ultrasound is also used to verify that the fetus is developing well, to locate the placenta, to measure the volume of amniotic fluid in which the shrimp are immersed, and also to measure the nuchal translucency of the fetus, the first step in screening for trisomy. 21. You may also be offered a blood test to more accurately calculate the chances of your fetus being affected, but this is not mandatory.

At the end of this appointment, you will receive the famous “declaration of early pregnancy”. This sheet must be sent to your CPAM and the CAF, to inform them of your condition, to be reimbursed for the treatment you will need to carry out later, to know the dates of your maternity leave (if you are an employee or independent) and to unlock any financial aid from the CAF (depending on the level of income).

The end of the third month is also an opportunity to enroll in a maternity or birth center, if that’s where you want to give birth. In Paris it is even advisable to register earlier, to avoid giving birth in the MacDo car park because it will take too long to register and the service will be complete.

A small detail that is important, as the Ameli.fr site underlines:

“Your pregnancy can be monitored medically, by a doctor (general practitioner or gynecologist) or by a midwife, in a private practice, hospital or maternal and child protection center (PMI). The midwife can independently monitor your pregnancy, if it does not present particular risks. “

You can then choose to be followed by the professional of your choice, depending on your sensitivity, your experience and your condition. And as Tania Totolidis tells us:

“It is a good idea to visit your doctor (general practitioner or gynecologist) or your midwife once a month. This is an opportunity to control tension, the absence of urinary tract infections and to discuss pregnancy disorders. “

Come on, that’s it, you’ve finally finished the first trimester of pregnancy! Let’s move on to the sequel which should be a little less nauseating (fingers crossed for you) and full of new sensations.

In the meantime, it might be a good time to announce your pregnancy at work (although you have no legal obligation to do so and you can very well do it sooner or later if you wish) and to think about your replacement during maternity leave.