(HealthNewsDigest.com) – A Mayo Clinic prenatal program takes a new approach to improving care for women with low-risk pregnancies.
Two-year-old Quinn Hales confidently places her toy stethoscope against baby sister Finley’s chest to listen to her heartbeat. It’s a skill she’s been honing ever since Finley was just a curiosity in her mom’s belly.
When the girls’ mother, Sian Hales, was pregnant with Finley, she participated in a program at Mayo Clinic called OB Nest. It seeks to improve the patient experience by reducing the number of prenatal appointments from between 12 and 14 to just eight for low-risk pregnancies.
Expectant mothers with low risks of pregnancy complications are given home monitoring devices to check the baby’s heart rate and the mother’s blood pressure between appointments. They also have access to an online care community, nurses and a nurse call line to answer questions between visits. Read the rest of the article.