Having a baby is an amazing experience for most women, but it can also be highly stressful. When a person feels particularly fatigued, sore, or stressed out, good prenatal care is especially necessary. In Belgium, prenatal care clinics provide pregnant women with massages. Massage is particularly good for pregnant women and newborns. There have been a number of research studies indicating that massage therapy can decrease anxiety and depression in expectant mothers. So too can prenatal massage minimize pain resulting from aching muscles and joints when performed on pregnant women. Regular massage therapy provided in prenatal care clinics has been shown to improve labor outcomes and the overall health of newborns.

Swedish Massage is the gold standard of prenatal massage methods offered by prenatal care clinics. The practice works to reduce many common symptoms associated with the skeletal and circulatory transitions taking place as hormones shift during pregnancy. Regular massages for pregnant women should be a universal medicinal practice provided by prenatal care clinics throughout the world.

Prenatal care clinics can provide a lot of other health related services to pregnant women. For example, prenatal testing for gestational diabetes is a service offered by a number of prenatal care clinics. Being tested for gestational diabetes is particularly important for women who were already overweight prior to conceiving and for those women who have gained more than 25 to 35 pounds throughout their pregnancy. Gaining a lot of weight during pregnancy drastically increases the risk of gestational diabetes and other poor outcomes including premature birth.

Another important task of prenatal care clinics is to detect correctable issues such as fetal heart abnormalities vis a vis echocardiography and other screening tests. When confirmed early on in the pregnancy, these problems can be taken care of. However, if they are not discovered until later, they can be life threatening. This is major reason why goo, consistent prenatal care is necessary throughout pregnancy.

Prenatal care clinics also double as general womens health clinics, offering testing for breast, cervical, uterine, and ovarian cancers. These cancers are highly curable when detected early on. Prenatal care clinics can provide women with annual pap smears in order to detect changes at the cellular level that may indicate precancerous growths. These growths are not capable of being seen by the naked eye, nor can they usually be felt manually. This is why getting a pap smear every year is a necessary measure for all women.