Prenatal care is full of tests. I felt as though I got poked and prodded more in the nine months of pregnancy than I had in my entire life. Mothers often get tested for a variety of complications and illnesses. Many problems can be fixed early on without further complications. That is why prenatal care is so important to the health of both the mother and the baby. Well, get ready to add the EPV to your list of routine pregnancy tests. The new test may help prevent pregnancy loss. EPV stands for Estimated Placenta Volume, and is a new way to estimate the weight of the placenta. Doctors hope to use the test to determine whether the placenta is too small, normal or too big.
The placenta is vital to a growing baby’s health. It provides nourishment and oxygen to the child in the womb while she develops. If there is a problem with the placenta, the baby can die. About 15 to 25% of stillbirths and neonatal deaths are caused by problems with the placenta. Problems usually become evident during the second or third trimester.
This new test will be similar to the way that doctors measure the growth of the baby during an ultrasound or the way a pediatrician monitors the growth of a child. Measurements will be compared to data collected from EPV results from around the world to determine where the volume fits in with the average. The test has an accuracy of up to 89 percent.
If a problem is found with a the placenta and it is no longer providing enough nourishment to the child, the child may be saved by being delivered sooner. Risk of stillbirth increases in the last weeks of pregnancy. It is hoped that these late stillbirths will be prevented by detecting size-related placental problems before they are truly a problem. Merwin Kliman, the man who developed the equation with the help of his father, hopes the test will become routine for all pregnant women.