Should a woman have a pre-pregnancy check-up? What happens at a pre-pregnancy check-up?

Is it like an annual visit to the doctor?

Required (why, if so) or recommended?

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Answer:
It's an annual pelvic exam, they do a PAP, check for STDs, and speak about things that you might want to change before getting pregnant - like starting prenatal vitamins, getting your teeth cleaned, getting vaccinated for pertussis, measles and mumps, chicken pox (and etc… if you haven't had them kept up to date or you never had chicken pox), stopping drinking alcohol altogether, lowering blood pressure, loosing weight, starting exercising, and often will do a blood draw to check for hypothyroidism if there’s a family history.

Yes you should, to prevent complications and birth defects and to have a smooth pregnancy.

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Answer:
I don't think it is necessary, but it doesn't hurt either. I happened to have one because my annual exam was just about the time we were going to try for a baby. I got good info about taking prenatal vitamins before you even begin trying (you especially want a lot of folic acid in your system right from the beginning to help with initial development) and I got some referrals to OB physicians ahead of time which was comforting to me. The basic strategy I got was to eat/drink whatever you want the first two weeks of the month and cut back on caffeine/alcohol the last half of the month until you know if you're pregnant or not. Hope that helps!

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Answer:
Pre-pregnancy checkups are mostly to screen out any serious problems like gestational diabetes and pre-ecclampsia. It's advisable but can get really tiring especially if you have other children.

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Answer:
I think they check you out down there to see if yo ucan have children…and everything…..