Medical history and genetic testing

Prenatal history

What happens during a woman's pregnancy can affect the development of her baby. A prenatal history often includes asking the mother about her:

• Family medical history
• Results of any prenatal testing
• Personal medical history
• Medication use during pregnancy
• Past pregnancy history
• Vaccination status
• Infection screening
• Diet
• Vitamin and supplement use
• Smoking and/or recreational drug use
• Exposure to harmful substances

Neonatal history

Our experts carefully check newborns for signs of problems or complications. Throughout your baby's hospital stay, physicians and nurses continually assess her for changes in her health and signs of problems or illness. These include the following:

• Apgar scoring

A = activity and muscle tone

P = pulse rate

G = grimace; reflex irritability

A = appearance, skin color

R = respiration

• Birthweight
• Measurements: head circumference, abdominal circumference and length
• Full physical examination
• Hearing screening
• Gestational assessment (to determine whether a baby was born prematurely by looking at physical maturity and neuromuscular maturity)

Pediatric history

Certain abilities and behaviors are present at certain ages in a baby's development. To evaluate these developmental milestones, we take into account a number of factors, including your child's:

• Rate of growth
• Activities he was able to do at specific ages
• Reflexes and when he developed them
• Behaviors and when he developed them
• Development of speech
• Level of understanding and how he reacts to stimuli, such as a loud noise or a soothing voice

Genetic testing

Genetic testing is available to test for a number of different types of chromosome abnormalities and genetic mutations. Results of these studies are important in evaluating your child for birth defects and their causes. Genetic testing may include any of the following:

• Biochemical tests
• Chromosome studies
• Direct DNA studies