What department is the prenatal care clinic?

Judging from the department settings of most hospitals in China, prenatal care clinics are specialized care clinics under the obstetrics department. There are also some grassroots hospitals and maternal and child health care hospitals that do not divide the obstetrics and gynecology department too finely, and will put it under the system of the general obstetrics and gynecology department or the women's health department.

A while ago, a pregnant mother who had just turned 14 weeks came to my place to book a pregnancy test. After reading the results, I asked her to stop by the prenatal care clinic next door to make an appointment for weight management guidance. She was stunned for two seconds and asked if she wanted to apply for another department. In fact, she didn’t need to apply for another department. The two clinics are already matched. Many hospitals have prenatal care clinics located next to the obstetrics area. When registering, you can find the corresponding number directly under the obstetrics category.

Many people tend to confuse it with general obstetric clinics. In fact, the positioning of the two is quite different. The core of general obstetric clinics is clinical diagnosis and treatment. Obstetricians sit in the clinic and are responsible for determining pregnancy risks, detecting abnormalities, and prescribing examinations and prescriptions. Daily appointments are tight, and each patient's consultation time is often only a few minutes, leaving no time to answer too detailed non-diagnostic and treatment questions. Most of the prenatal care clinic staff are midwives and obstetrical care team leaders with more than ten years of obstetrical experience. They specialize in non-pathological pregnancy care guidance. If you are confused about how much milk to drink every day during pregnancy, how to count fetal movements, and what to do about low back pain in late pregnancy. How to relieve yourself, what trivial things to pick in your maternity bag, and even don’t know how to deal with the pain of uterine contractions before labor. Go and sit here for twenty minutes, and someone can explain it to you clearly and teach you the movements step by step. It is much more reliable than the fragmented knowledge you have learned from a dozen short videos on your own.

Of course, there are also a few hospitals that merge some functions of prenatal care with pregnant women’s schools and put them under the Department of Gynecology and Health Care of Public Health. They may not be in the obstetrics category when registering, but it doesn’t actually matter. Just search for “prenatal care” on the registration page to find the corresponding entrance. The functions are similar. However, I would like to remind you that if you have pathological problems such as abdominal pain, redness, or abnormal blood pressure, you still have to give priority to the general obstetrics department to see a doctor for treatment. The prenatal care clinic is not responsible for clinical diagnosis and prescription.