Maternity

Dr. Chandana is committed to providing high-quality maternity care for women during their pregnancy, in labour, and after the birth of their baby. She has handled multiple simple and complex cases of pregnancy and has expertise in painless normal deliveries, delivery through caesarean section, and high-risk pregnancies. By being in close association with her patients and their attenders, she encourages the entire family to be involved in making birthing and parenthood choices.

Pre-Pregnancy counselling

Consulting your gynaecologist before planning pregnancy, significantly improves the fetal and maternal outcomes!

Here are some reasons why you should meet your gynaecologist before planning pregnancy:

• Pre-conception counselling allows your gynaecologist to assess your health in detail and reduce the risk of any adverse health effects on you and your baby by modifying them.
• Your family history, risk factors, medical conditions, vaccinations, and lifestyle are discussed in such an appointment.
• After examining you in detail your doctor may advise you on some tests, which can include genetic tests especially if you have any genetic conditions in your family.
• You may also be advised for certain lifestyle modifications for a healthy conception, and some prenatal vitamins may also be started for you.
Three months before you start planning a child is a good time for a pre-pregnancy check-up.

Antenatal care

Antenatal appointments are a great opportunity to ask any questions that you may have about pregnancy, know what is happening in each trimester, and modify your diet or exercise as per the changes that you have been going through Once you have conceived remember:

• While conception comes easy to some, it can take a different course for others. As soon as your pregnancy is confirmed it is important to get an appointment with your gynaecologist to know the subsequent visits that you will require for scans and other tests.
• appointments will allow your healthcare team to help both you and your baby stay healthy.
• Even if your pregnancy is going well and you are feeling fine antenatal appointments are important to check the growth and development of the growing fetus and identify any potential risks to prevent or reduce them.

Pregnancy is a dynamic journey of nine months and is accompanied by constant changes and developments, such appointments help one stay aware and healthy.

What can I expect in my Antenatal appointments?

Depending on which visit it is for you, you can expect the following during the antenatal check-ups:

• Knowing which trimester, you are in and when can your baby be due
• Finding out about your medical history, general health
• Discussing any medication that you are taking
• Checking your blood pressure and weight and testing your urine
• Organizing blood tests and screening
• Advice on healthy eating and lifestyle changes
• Measuring your tummy, and listening to the baby’s heartbeat
• Checking any physical symptoms that may be bothering you
• Discussion about your birth plan
• Talking about alternative plans if things do not go in your favour
• Knowing about antenatal classes

Ultrasounds during Antenatal visits

Ultrasounds are crucial during your antenatal visits for monitoring the growth and development of the fetus. These are taken at regular intervals and can help your gynaecologist detect any abnormalities at an early stage. Ultrasounds can be done per-abdominally from over your belly, or at times transvaginal ultrasound may also be required. Dr.Reshma Reddy is an expert in performing and interpreting scans required during pregnancy.

Some uses of ultrasounds done during the antenatal period are:

• To confirm you’re pregnant.
• To check your baby’s age and growth.
• To check your baby’s heartbeat, muscle tone, movement, and overall development.
• To check to see if you’re pregnant with a single fetus, twins, triplets, or more.
• To check if your baby is in the heads-first position before birth.
• To examine your ovaries and uterus.
• To check for the adequacy of amniotic fluid around the fetus.
• To detect any developmental abnormalities in the fetus.

Labour and Delivery

Dr. Chandana has conducted multiple painless normal deliveries and deliveries through caesarean section, she is also an expert in handling high-risk pregnancies.

Painless normal delivery

Natural delivery can be painful, opting for epidural anaesthesia eases out the labour pain and helps one deliver painlessly through the vaginal canal. An epidural is used to block nerve signals –the ones responsible for feelings of pain, from the lower part of your spine. It’s administered through a catheter that is run through a large needle inserted into the epidural space that surrounds your spinal cord. The catheter remains in place during labour and delivery to continue delivering the medication. Depending on the health of the baby and your pregnancy, an epidural may be an option for you.

Dr. Chandana has vast experience and has conducted multiple painless deliveries under epidural anaesthesia.

High-risk pregnancy

A high-risk pregnancy is a pregnancy that involves increased health risks for the pregnant person, unborn baby, or both. Having a high-risk pregnancy doesn’t necessarily mean one will have problems. Regular visits to your gynaecologist can help one stay healthy.

What can put a woman in the high-risk category?

Multiple factors can put a woman in the high-risk pregnancy category. Some of these include:

• Maternal age of more than 35 years.
• Medical conditions like high BP, diabetes, obesity, thyroid-related conditions, infections, etc.
• Lifestyle-related factors such as consumption of alcohol during pregnancy.
• At times, a woman may not be at high risk when she gets pregnant, but she may develop complications during pregnancy which may, in turn, make it so. Such complications include gestational diabetes, pregnancy-related high blood pressure, or conditions such as an abnormal position of the placenta.

Maternal healthcare is extremely advanced nowadays and an array of non-invasive, and invasive diagnostic tests are available to detect any developing problems in both, the mother and the fetus. By identifying high-risk pregnancy and monitoring it closely throughout the nine-month duration one can expect a healthy delivery without any complications. The treatment administered in such a state depends on the cause of high risk.

Irrespective of whether a woman falls under high risk or not, one should consult their gynaecologist before planning pregnancy. With a detailed check-up, it is assured that any high-risk factors are identified and minimized before conception, and a state of preconception health is established by starting vitamins such as folic acid and monitoring maternal weight.

"Dr. Chandana has a vast experience in handling high-risk pregnancies."

Postnatal care

Postnatal care is specialized care for the mother that begins immediately after delivery, up to roughly eight weeks. Some aspects of postnatal care include:

• Prevention, elimination, early detection, and cure of health complications.
• Counselling on breastfeeding.
• Counselling on immunisation.
• An interactive session on the importance of birth spacing.
• Discussion and guidance about the importance of maternal nutrition.
• Discussion and counselling about the maternal psychological changes post-birth.

Postnatal care involves proper rest, nutrition, and vaginal care for the mother, facilitating a quicker and healthier recovery.

Breastfeeding Guide for new moms

Here are some commonly asked questions that can help answer your questions about breastfeeding:

At times the mother is unable to produce enough breast milk for the baby. What are the ways to deal with it?

At times mother’s milk may take time to establish due to multiple reasons. At such a time, continuing to stimulate the breast enough is important for it to produce enough milk eventually. Mothers should make their babies suckle or use a breast pump for such stimulation, alternatively breast massage to express milk can also be done. It’s important to exhaust the breasts of the milk they produce in order to signal the body to produce more of it.

Drinking enough water, taking adequate rest, and eating a healthy diet with more protein and calcium, and less caffeine and alcohol also helps in breast milk production. Usage of a heating pad or warm shower before expressing breastmilk can be a great way to let down more milk from the breasts as well.

A lactation consultant should be spoken to, in order to assure the position of breastfeeding is right and the baby can latch the breast well and to rule out any other medical possibilities of low milk production so that any help for these can be taken at the earliest.

The most important point to remember is not to stress about breast milk, any stress can reduce the milk further. The baby gets adequately nourished through supplement milk by the time the mother takes time to establish breast milk. Thus, the mother should relax and work on trying to improve her milk production and the family should be patient and supportive for the same.

Sometimes the baby becomes too used to the formula and rejects the breast milk? How detrimental is it to the baby’s overall growth? How can mothers combat this problem?

During the first year of life, a baby gets triple his birth weight. This weight that the baby gains is by the feed he takes. Breast milk is thus ideal for the baby during this stage of life. Breastmilk has many added advantages over formula milk. A formula-fed baby doesn’t get any antibodies that are secreted in mother milk and thus makes them more prone to many diseases when compared to breastfed babies. At times, a baby may be allergic to certain formulas which thus can make the baby suffer additionally. Formula milk takes a longer time to digest and is heavier on the baby’s gastrointestinal tract.

If the baby rejects breastmilk, it’s important to still keep trying in order to maintain milk production and to prevent engorgement of breasts. Some points below can help one in regaining a baby’s interest in breastmilk:

Change your position: One should take note of not giving up if the baby rejects breastmilk. If the baby is uncomfortable in a certain position, then a change in position should be tried by the mother. If comfortable, the baby will tend to feed better.

Change your place: If the mother is feeding in a noisy environment, then she should try feeding in a quiet room away from distractions. Doing so may calm the baby more and he may feed better.

Feed on demand: If the mother tries feeding a baby whose stomach is already full or half full, he may not be interested in feeding. Trying to feed when the baby is hungry and demands milk is the best time when he is most likely to take the feed.

Give the baby more skin-to-skin contact: With such care given to the baby, he feels nurtured and thus can tend to feed more.