Content Objective: Maternity Care
By the end of the Family Medicine Clerkship, the medical student will be able to:
- Discuss key pre-conception considerations in healthy patients of childbearing age. (e.g. folic acid supplementation, smoking, rubella immunity, etc.)
- Date a pregnancy accurately.
- Explore the patient’s feelings and concerns about their pregnancy (e.g. supports, stressors, etc.)
- Describe an adequate first prenatal visit including taking a history and performing an appropriate focused physical exam with the assistance of available antenatal tracking tools.
- Screen for and identify pregnancies at risk (e.g. domestic violence, multiple gestation, age, substance use, ethnicity, etc.)
- Cousel on genetic screening and investigations
- Describe a basic prenatal follow up visit, including BP measurement, weight, fetal heart rate (starting at 12 weeks), symphysis-fundal height (20 weeks and beyond), screening for concerns and complications.
- Describe basic education and counseling regarding delivery.
- Describe a six-week-post-partum visit that includes:
- Pap test and breast examination (where applicable/indicated)
- family planning/contraception options appropriate for the patient (i.e. no estrogen if patient is breastfeeding)
- screening for post-partum depression
- Differentiate between post-partum blues and post-partum depresssion.
Mandatory Clinical Encounter
- None
Resources*
- LearnFM prenatal clinical cards
- Zolotor AJ, Carlough MC. Update on Prenatal Care. Am Fam Physician. 2014; Feb 1:89(3):199-208 (Please note this is a U.S. resource, most provinces have individualized prenatal records. This article provides a good overview of prenatal practices with good evidence. Provincial guidelines regarding prenatal screening may vary.)
- PEI Reproductive Care Program
- NB Perinatal Health Program
- NS Reproductive Care Program
- Breastfeeding webinar - see Brightspace for slides
- Postpartum and Newborn Care Summary Checklist for Primary Care Providers
* Where a specific resource is not listed for a particular objective, please refer to recommended general texts/websites. Resources have often been selected from the Clinical Practice Guidelines and Protocols in British Columbia and Alberta’s Towards Optimized Practice Clinical Practice Guidelines. These are often concise summaries of national guidelines.