Pregnant women and blood tests go hand in hand. The ‘Human Chorionic Gonadotropin Hormone’ present only in a pregnant woman’s blood stream is a clear indicator that the woman is pregnant. HCG is only present in pregnant women. Once this hormone is detected through a blood test and pregnancy is confirmed several routine tests follow thereafter.
Pregnant women are subjected to several routine blood tests, some of the reasons that necessitate such tests are as follows:-
a) Hemoglobin – During pregnancy it is important to keep a check on the hemoglobin levels of a pregnant woman. This is done through routine blood tests. Low hemoglobin levels suggest that you’re anemic, whereas a high hemoglobin level suggests you’re not. If you are diagnosed as an anemic, you must eat loads of vegetables, fruits, and dried fruits. Iron tablets may also be prescribed.
b) Hepatitis B – If diagnosed with hepatitis B, there’s a high risk that you could transmit this disease to your child. Hence blood tests help in identifying this virus and if found in your blood stream, your baby must be injected with antibodies at birth to prevent complications In the future.
c) Toxoplasmosis – An infectious disease spread by undercooked meat and cat faces. One needs to be tested for this disease as it causes many problems like premature labour and miscarriage.
d) Abnormalities – ‘Screening Blood Tests’ usually done during the first three months of the pregnancy and after 28 weeks at monthly intervals, detects abnormalities in the baby, if any.
e) Syphilis – It is a sexually transmitted disease (STD). Though rare, if it is detected, can cause serious complications to the unborn child since it cannot be treated during pregnancy.
Apart from the reasons mentioned above, there are other less serious reasons behind testing ones blood during pregnancies – Identifying infectious diseases(herpes, German measles, etc.), and to check the level of sugar in your blood stream. Also, it is important to be aware of a pregnant woman’s blood group, if it’s A-ve, B-ve, AB-ve or O – ve, you must be tested for anti-bodies which could prove dangerous as it may cause complications.
How to use pregnancy test strip
When it comes to confirming pregnancy, women are always known to be anxious and concerned. The best way to remove that anxiety is of course to confirm whether the woman is pregnant or not. Pregnancy test strips are easily available and is one of the best ways to detect early pregnancy. It is a device that can be used to test the levels of hCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin) in urine specimens. Shortly after fertilization, the developing placenta secretes HCG, a hormone, which attains concentration levels in the later gestation periods. The test strip could be used in the following manner:
- You need to remove the test strip from the pouch that it comes with by tearing along the notch. Early morning urine samples contain high concentrations of the hormone HCG, therefore the test could give better results if used in the morning.
- You need to collect your urine sample in a clean, dry container.
- Holding the strip vertically, you need to dip the strip in the urine sample. You need to remember that the arrow end of the strip needs to point to the urine sample.
- After about three seconds, you need to take the strip out and place it on a flat, dry surface.
- After placing it on the surface, you need to wait for a few seconds for the colored bands to appear on the pregnancy strip. Positive results may come as early as 40 seconds while negative results can be confirmed after about five minutes.
Positive pregnancy result can be confirmed if there are two distinct colour bands on the test line as well as the control line. It is not important to measure the colour intensity of the bands as that may differ with the HCG concentrations. Negative pregnancy can be confirmed if there is just one distinct colour band instead of two. A single colour band would appear on the control line.
