🎯Three Content Types · One Force Field
Every square belongs to one of three content types — not three levels you climb. Track progress in your Course and Skills Lab.
📘 Learn It Content type
Concepts to absorb.
🛠 Live It Content type
Daily skills and habits.
📣 Share It Content type
Teach, advocate, carry forward.
🛡️Your Force Field — 16 Squares
Deeper detail lives in the Prepared Patient Pregnancy & Maternal Health course.
What Maternal Health Covers
Pregnancy through 1 year postpartum. Underrecognized risks.
Learn ItPrenatal Vitamins + Meds
Folate critical. Iron, vitamin D often. Adjust other meds carefully.
Learn ItSpot Emergencies
Preeclampsia · postpartum hemorrhage · postpartum mood emergency · 911.
Learn ItRisk Factors
Hypertension, diabetes, age, prior complications, certain ethnicities.
Learn ItKnow Your Numbers
BP, glucose, urine protein, fetal growth, fetal movement.
Learn ItMed Adjustments
Some meds need switching during pregnancy. Some need continuing.
Live ItPrenatal Visit Cadence
Monthly, biweekly, weekly as pregnancy progresses.
Live ItNutrition
Adequate protein, folate, iron, omega-3. Avoid certain foods.
Live ItMental Health
Depression and anxiety common. Screen actively.
Live ItMake Every Visit Count
Bring symptom log, fetal movement counts, BP if home monitoring.
Live ItYour Care Team
OB or midwife, PCP, mental health, doula, lactation consultant.
Live ItApps + Tracking
Pregnancy apps, fetal movement counters, BP trackers.
Live ItInsurance + Coverage
Pregnancy and postpartum covered. Mental health parity laws.
Live ItTeach & Mentor
Maternal mortality crisis. Share what you learn.
Share ItAdvocate
Equitable care — especially for Black women, low-income, rural.
Share ItResearch & Trials
Postpartum depression treatments, preeclampsia prevention, perinatal mental health.
Share ItThree things to learn before you actually need them.
Workflow lives in the Prepared Visit Tool. Trackers in your Course.
Which door do I use?
Pregnancy and postpartum have specific emergencies. The ladder helps you know when to call.
Handle at home
- Regular prenatal visits
- No new severe symptoms
- Following med and vitamin plan
Log it. Don’t skip prenatal visits.
Call the office / message the portal
- Mild new symptoms (swelling, headache, nausea changes)
- Running low on prenatal vitamins, insulin, or other meds
- Mood concerns
- Fetal movement decreased — same day call
Same day. Decreased fetal movement always gets a call.
Urgent / Acute care
- Persistent moderate headache
- Persistent mild contractions before 37 weeks
- Mild bleeding
- Significant ankle swelling
- Mood drop affecting function
Urgent care or labor & delivery triage.
ER NOW / call 911
- Severe headache with vision changes or upper abdominal pain (preeclampsia)
- Heavy bleeding
- Severe shortness of breath or chest pain
- No fetal movement
- Seizure
- Postpartum: severe sadness with thoughts of harm to self or baby
- Postpartum hemorrhage
Call 911. Preeclampsia and postpartum complications are leading causes of maternal mortality.
How to describe a new symptom in 30 seconds
What is it?
Plain words.
How bad?
0-10.
When did it start?
Time + what you were doing.
What made it worse?
Movement · food · meds.
What helped?
Even a little.
What else was new?
Fever · med · supplement · stress. The forgotten detail often shifts the diagnosis.
“Severe headache for 6 hours at 32 weeks, a 8, started after lunch, worse with bright lights, lying down doesn’t help, and I’ve noticed my hands and face are more swollen.”
Questions worth asking
Four for every patient, every condition, every visit:
- “Could this be a side effect of one of my medications, a supplement, or something else I’m doing — and should we change that?”
- “Would any non-drug therapy help — physical therapy, meditation, rest, ice or heat?”
- “If I can’t afford this medication or this test, can we talk about samples, alternatives, or a social worker who can help?”
- “What should I be watching for between now and my next visit — and when do I handle it myself, when do I call your office, when do I go to urgent care, and when do I go to the ER?”
Questions specifically for Pregnancy & Maternal Health:
- “What’s my risk profile — preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, hypertension?”
- “Mental health — how are we screening for depression and anxiety?”
- “Birth planning — what choices do I have, and what do you recommend?”
- “Postpartum plan — mental health, contraception, follow-up schedule?”
- “Breastfeeding support if I want it — lactation, pumping, return to work?”