Pregnancy follow-up: combining the public and private systems

Prenato is a private perinatal clinic that works mainly in prenatal screening and in supporting pregnant women. Many expecting mothers feel a little lost when the time comes to choose their pregnancy follow-up. They wonder whether it is possible to have a follow-up in the public and the private system at the same time. It certainly is, so let us show you how a private clinic like Prenato can support you!

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Pregnancy follow-up

If you are able to have it with your family doctor, your gynaecologist or your midwife, that health professional is the one who will take charge of your medical file and give you the prescriptions for the interventions they judge necessary, based on your health. They are the one who will weigh you, review your results, monitor your blood pressure and examine you. This service is entirely covered by the RAMQ (Quebec's public health insurance plan) and free of charge. If, on the other hand, you do not have access to that kind of professional, or you would rather entrust your pregnancy follow-up to one of our professionals for faster, more personalized service, you can have it at several of our clinics.

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Ultrasounds, blood tests and related follow-ups

Prenato steps in once you receive your prescriptions (ultrasounds, routine blood work, screening, etc.). You can then continue in the public system or come and meet us! At Prenato, we work together with your health professional. They are the one we send the results of the tests and routine blood work done with us. Our team can take charge of your prenatal screening, your ultrasounds and your routine blood work, depending on your region. These paid services are covered by some insurers and are tax deductible. What is more, with the purchase of a screening test, every expecting mother receives Prenato prenatal support time. Clients have access to a team of nurses (auxiliary nurses, technicians and clinicians) so they can ask their questions all through their pregnancy or after baby arrives. This service makes it easy to reach a health professional for the common worries of pregnancy. Many couples use this time to prepare for childbirth, at no additional cost.

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Prenatal screening

We offer two types of prenatal screening: Serum marker screening, done between 11 and 14 weeks, which is similar in reliability to the one offered in the public system. It is done with a single blood draw, however, and gives results in 5 to 7 business days. If you ever had a result showing a high risk of trisomy, you would have access, at no charge, to Prenato fetal DNA screening. Fetal DNA screening, for its part, is done from the 10^th week of pregnancy with a single blood draw and is up to 99.9% reliable. These tests screen for the main trisomies (13, 18 and 21) or for all of them (23 pairs of chromosomes), for sex chromosome abnormalities and for certain genetic conditions. You can therefore receive your results in the first trimester (2 to 4 business days with the EXPRESS package, or 5 to 7 business days with our regular package), giving you peace of mind as early as the 11th week of pregnancy!

In the public system? The service is covered by the RAMQ, whether for your ultrasounds, your routine blood work or your screening. You then have to go through the Quebec Prenatal Screening Program for Trisomy 21 offered in the CSSSs and hospitals in your area to have a serum marker test. Unfortunately, although it is free, the program can be hard to access in some regions. You will then need two blood draws. A first sample between 10 and 13 weeks and a second between 14 and 16 weeks. You will get results with a sensitivity of roughly 85% around the 18^th week of pregnancy, before being referred, if needed, for an amniocentesis. So if an abnormality is suspected, you will probably only find out close to the halfway point of your pregnancy. It is not unusual for us to see women more than 18 weeks pregnant who had their prenatal screening in the public system and received worrying results. Prenato lets them have a fetal DNA test that is more reliable than the one they had free of charge, to improve the chances of avoiding an amniocentesis. Stress that could have been avoided in the first trimester by having fetal DNA screening at 10 weeks!

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Your ideal type of follow-up is the one that matches your expectations and your means. You can choose to have your ultrasounds in the public system and your screening with Prenato, your routine blood work in the public system but your screening and your ultrasounds with Prenato, everything in the public system, or everything with us. There are as many paths as there are needs during your pregnancy. What matters is knowing that Prenato exists and offers you a whole range of quality private services!

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