Family Planning

Do you want to start trying for a baby?
Are you worried you won’t be able to get pregnant?
Are you trying to get pregnant, but it hasn’t happened yet?
Our friendly doctors are able to help you with the early stages of family planning.

Talking with your doctor can help you prepare for pregnancy, how conception (getting pregnant) occurs and how you can improve your chances of getting pregnant. Your doctor can also explain where you can get help if you are finding it difficult to get pregnant.

Early Pregnancy Care

The earliest and most reliable sign of pregnancy for women with a regular menstrual cycle is a missed period. Sometimes women who are pregnant have a shorter or lighter period than normal.

You can carry out a pregnancy test from the first day of a missed period. Tests carried out earlier than this are not always accurate. If you don’t have regular periods, the earliest time you can do a test is 21 days from the last time you had unprotected sex. For some women the test does not show positive until their period is at least a week late.

Pregnancy tests look for the pregnancy hormone human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG), which is found in the urine of pregnant women. A positive test is almost always correct. But women can sometimes get a negative result if the test is carried out too early or not correctly, even though they may be pregnant.

Midwives

A list of local Waiuku based midwives are available here.

Post Natal Care

The post natal care period covers the 6-week following birth. During this time the various changes that occurred during pregnancy revert to the non-pregnant state. Your doctor cares for you and your baby during this time to ensure that you are coping and healthy.