A Pap smear is a screening test your healthcare provider does to check for pre-cancer or early cancer of the cervix. To take the sample (the smear), your doctor will put a, instrument called a speculum into your vagina to help open it. He or she will clean your cervix with a cotton swab and then collect a sample of cells from your cervix with a small brush, a spatula or a cotton swab. This sample is put on a glass slide and sent to a laboratory to be checked. And yes, a Pap smear is a safe procedure to be performed during a pregnancy.

If you are not already pregnant, I would recommend that you see your provider soon so you may benefit from preconception counseling. At a preconception visit, your provider will perform a complete physical, including a pap smear. He or she will also, take a complete health history, including a genetic history and make recommendations from this history, discuss proper diet and vitamin supplementation during the preconception period. From there, you will be directed toward good health behaviors to assist you in achieving a healthy conception, pregnancy, labor and birth.

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