Follow-up of pregnancy
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Late ultrasound of a pregnancy. |
If it appears that you are pregnant, your pregnancy will be further monitored:
- Five weeks after the transfer of the embryo ultrasound scans will be performed (see ultrasound scans);
- from day fifteen after the embryo transfer, up to and including the the sixth week of pregnancy, a blood test will be performed twice a week (see blood tests);
- from the seventh to the twelfth week the blood test will be once weekly;
- if the woman is still taking supportive medicine after that point in time, the blood test will be once a fortnight.
In the sixteenth week, there is a blood test for all pregnant women, for the detection of Down Syndrome (mongolism). See prenatal examinations. The pregnancy itself will be monitored in its entirety by your GP, or the gynaecologist which referred you to us in the first place.
Follow-up studies from UZ Brussel
However, we at UZ Brussel will still ask for information on the further progress of your pregnancy and will stay in contact even after the birth. We will send you two questionnaires in this respect. You will receive the first at the end of the first term of your pregnancy. The second is sent shortly after the estimated delivery date.
Your counsellor will also contact the Centre for Medical Genetics (CMG) at UZ Brussel as soon as the pregnancy has been established. He or she will inform them of your pregnancy and will enable them to plan the postnatal examinations of your child, which will take place two months and one year after the birth.
Our questions are of personal interest: we like to know whether the treatment was successful and whether you have experienced any problems. However, they are also part of the scientific investigation we are continuously performing with regard to pregnancies and children resulting from fertility treatment.
We do this to constantly improve the quality of our treatments and to document the effect of certain changes (e.g. in stimulation medication). We also have to meet legal obligations regarding the collection of statistical data on (the health of) our patients and their babies born from IVF/ICSI or KI(D).
We therefore insist that our patients complete and return the questionnaires. This not only helps scientific research, it also helps many future patients, of which you may be one.
There is no need to worry about your privacy: all data is provided strictly anonymously. There is absolutely no chance that medical or other information you provide can be traced back to you personally.