Many medical centers have been providing obstetrical services to pregnant women through telehealth. The telehealth service involves video conference, home monitoring, and remote specialist for a home consultation.
Pregnant women need regular checkups during the prenatal period as it’s crucial for both woman and child’s health. However, not every woman can acquire obstetrical services on a timely basis, a major reason is great distance and unavailability of transportation. In such a scenario, women have considered telemedicine as a much-needed, useful tool. To your surprise telemedicine has also been used in the postpartum period to help pregnant women by providing lactation consultants and mental health professionals.
According to the United States data, 85% of pregnant women are under low pregnancy risk and can take high advantage of telehealth. Telehealth is now widely used to give primary treatments that confirm whether both mother and child’s health is good or not.
Taking this further, let’s see, how telemedicine can help pregnant women?
Telemedicine provides a broad range of pregnancy-related services. In order to take care of diabetic and hypertension patients, telemedicine uses phone/video consultation with specialists.
Eligibility and at what phase in your prenatal period, you can acquire telemedicine service?
Pregnant women who are under 36 weeks of gestational age can acquire telemedicine services. However, there are other terms and conditions as well to take into consideration.
What services does telemedicine provide to pregnant women and how is it beneficial?
In a woman’s life, pregnancy is a priceless experience since she is carrying a new life inside her. However, a woman has to face several challenges during the pregnancy such as UTI( Urinary Tract Infection), hypertension, obesity, weight gain, and infections, that’s why women should go to doctors often for check-ups.
Healthcare providers are now implementing telemedicine to ensure that every pregnant woman receives necessary care throughout their pregnancy period.
Look at some telemedicine services for pregnant women
- Live ultrasound technology:
It is difficult for pregnant women from rural and other remote areas to get quick checkups as she has to travel for long hours to reach a doctor in an urban city, in such cases health care providers can easily perform examinations on patients using live ultrasound technology.
- Transfer data related to your pregnancy to many healthcare providers
Initially, a pregnant woman has to go for a check-up once a month for 28 weeks and then twice a week until the delivery date. In this prenatal span, women have to give updates to their concerned doctors where telemedicine takes place that allows users to transfer data to multiple healthcare providers so that women who are expecting a child can be in touch with doctors and can be aware of the child’s health.
- Remote video conferencing allows for emergency consultations
Women who have chronic medical conditions and have had previous complications are carrying a high risk compared to the average pregnant woman, and that’s why they need special care. Secondly, if a mother is living in a remote area where it is difficult to get medical help, and therefore, telemedicine provides remote video conferencing for emergency conditions.
Take a look at some Do’s and Don’t while using telemedicine
Keep your required tool with you before contacting your doctor depending on your condition
You have to first check if your computer or phone has a stable internet connection or not because a bad internet connection will lead to miscommunication and that can be troublesome for you. Also, it would be time-saving and beneficial if you keep the below types of equipment with you while using telemedicine
- Blood pressure measurement device
- A1C lab testing kit with postage
- Digital scale
Make sure that you have the same telemedicine application that your doctor has. Initially, it can be awkward and uncomfortable using telemedicine but gradually it will get better once you get familiar with its operations and features.
If you are sharing the data via email, make sure that the data remains confidential.
Data privacy has been a big concern when it comes to using technology, so it’s safe and smart to make sure about data confidentiality before sharing information
“Your care providers will do everything they can to make sure that they’re maintaining confidentiality and privacy,” assures Dr. De Souza.
Thus, ask your doctor proactively about the encryption of data if they don’t mention it. There is a consent form that you should have to sign before acquiring the telemedicine services and therefore your doctor becomes accountable for data privacy.
Keeping a stock of medication is something smart that one should do
Keep the recurring prescription set-up ready on your application so that you can quickly order it on your phone. Also, as most pharmacies are going automated nowadays so you don’t have to refill your prescription every month as it gets refilled automatically by the software.
2 best telemedicine applications for pregnant women
- MDLIVE
According to the MDLIVE users, the application is quick in process and will give you a hassle-free experience, patients are happy getting treated by board-certified doctors and licensed therapists.
MDLIVE is considered the best application for pregnant women as it provides 24/7 service, and you can consult a licensed therapist and psychiatrist for your mental health support.
You have to follow these 5 steps in order to use MDLIVE Application
- First of all, you have to Visit the MDLIVE website
- Sign in
- Once you sign in, click on “ See a doctor” or “Find a provider”
- Give details about your purpose of using MDLIVE, your medical history, and the name of the pharmacy.
- Book your appointment choosing from a list of a qualified provider
Now you are all set to talk with a doctor.
- Amwell
Another application for women who are expecting a child is Amwell, this application is available 24/7/365. Medical help can be needed anytime during the pregnancy period therefore, choosing the right application that provides the required service is important. Also, Amwell accepts most of the insurance plans so there would be no issue regarding the payment.
With rating google and apple ratings 4.9 and 4.3 respectively, Amwell provides the below services to their users.
Why are women more likely to use Telehealth?
As per the experts, due to telehealth convenience and time-saving features, caregivers can easily take care of toddlers and children through virtual visits during the pandemic. Data shows that 1.3 billion women-focused startups have been registered across 26 deals, women-focused services including fertility and pregnancy tracking, and menopause health are the most offered services on telehealth.
According to telehealth vendors, women are more likely to use telehealth than men, another data says that women accounted for 64% of general medical visits whereas men accounted for only 36%. Moreover, if we see the age range among the women then, between 25 to 44 years old women are more likely to use telehealth services and 45 to 64 years old women use telehealth in chronic conditions.
And “women have traditionally put off their own care while focusing on the needs of family members and other loved ones,” Zelis said. In addition to this, data suggest that some female doctors offer services at higher rates than their male counterparts.
Conclusion:
Telemedicine is a great way to consult a doctor through a digital platform unless you don’t have a serious health issue. This pandemic has shown a new way to telemedicine as there is a big concern of getting infected with the covid virus. Especially for pregnant women, it’s not wrong to say that telemedicine is a blessing on them, it has given all possible treatment to pregnant women so that they and their children can be healthy. White label telemedicine solution has its own disadvantages as well that you should consider, however, your doctor will guide you on telemedicine whether you should opt for a digital platform or for an in-person visit.
