Ensuring every child's health before and after birth is every doctor's goal. To that end, maintaining continuity of care, particularly during the time between prenatal and postnatal newborn care, is part of the ARC mission.
Recently, Community Impact sat down with Shaili S. Singh, MD, Pediatrics at ARC Pflugerville, and Crystal S. Berry-Roberts, MD, MBA, FACOG, Ob/Gyn at ARC South Ob/Gyn, to discuss why continuity of care is so crucial and how ARC can help coordinate this relationship.
Prenatal care
Dr. Berry-Roberts says, "It's very important to establish prenatal care as soon as possible. Doing so can help identify any factors that may make the pregnancy higher risk." She continues, "This can help facilitate laying the groundwork early on for how to strategically go about trying to ensure the best outcomes for mom and baby. Preconception counseling before trying to get pregnant is also a good step even before prenatal care is needed."
Newborn care
Dr. Singh adds, "Newborn care starts at the time the baby is born. However, we usually encourage the family to find a pediatrician, if they don't already have one, in the third trimester."
To facilitate parents finding a pediatrician, ARC offers prenatal meet and greets for expecting parents to meet ARC Pediatricians and get answers to all their questions.
How does coordination of care benefit both parents and children?
Dr. Berry-Roberts says, "Though I am charged with mom's progress postpartum, I appreciate and value having the additional eyes of the pediatrician on her when she's taking her newborn to appointments. The Ob/Gyn-Pediatric dynamic at ARC helps us achieve good maternal and baby outcomes together as a team."
"Everything about pediatrics is about making sure you're healthy and keeping you healthy all the way from birth to adulthood," says Dr. Singh. "It's about those long-lasting relationships."
What tools does ARC offer to expectant and new parents?
Dr. Berry-Roberts says our new parents are getting as much information as they can. We also emphasize the relationship between ARC Ob/Gyn and ARC Pediatrics.
Other resources we offer include:
Dr. Singh says, "We really support that transition from Ob/Gyn to pediatrics, because when it all stays within one circle, it makes communication very easy. Our electronic medical records mean we can access labs or other information more easily from any ARC location and between specialties."
Other resources we offer include:
- Newborn booklet providing information to parents in those first few critical days and weeks
- NormanMD, our subscription tele-health service, that provides adult and pediatric physicians 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to answer non-emergency acute problems through virtual visits
Make an appointment today
Five ARC clinic locations offer Ob/Gyn care and 22 ARC clinic locations in 14 cities offer Pediatric care. All ARC After Hours Clinics have pediatricians on staff as well.
If you are planning to start your prenatal or newborn journey, visit ARC Ob/Gyn and ARC Pediatrics to make an appointment today.