It’s good to be “pregnant”, but don’t wait to announce the good news just yet. Why? Because good things don’t always last, and good things can turn bad, and announcing too early can be risky and embarrassing to take back. Probability of miscarriage In the population as a whole, the rate of miscarriage in clinical pregnancies (delayed menstruation, urine test or ultrasound confirmation of pregnancy) is about 10-15%, which is not a small probability. Most miscarriages occur within 3 months, so it is more reliable to announce the good news at an older gestational age. The probability of ectopic pregnancy is better than miscarriage, but more deadly is ectopic pregnancy (scientifically known as “ectopic pregnancy”), which can lead to intra-abdominal hemorrhage or even death if not detected and treated in time. This is why when you go to the hospital to check your pregnancy, your doctor will usually recommend that you have an ultrasound, which is an important part of the test to rule out ectopic pregnancy. How to announce good news? A positive urine test after menopause can only be used to “rejoice”, because there is a possibility that the pregnancy is a “biochemical pregnancy” and the germ will not come out. You have to wait until you have an ultrasound examination around 40-50 days after menopause, which is done to see whether the embryo is inside or outside the uterus, one or two or even three, and whether it is dead or alive. Once the ultrasound is confirmed, you can announce it carefully within the family, so that your mother-in-law can have a secret pleasure. After 3 months, you can tell your friends, family and work colleagues and receive blessings, and then you can show off your belly when you are older. Do I have to take sick leave if I’m pregnant? Nowadays, mothers-to-be are so precious that they start to take sick leave as soon as they get pregnant, but it is not necessary at all. If you take sick leave and lie at home every day to “nurture” or “protect the fetus”, one is very boring, and the other is not useful. The one that is yours is definitely yours, you jump up and down every day is fine; should not be yours is not yours, you lie down every day even if it is upside down will still miscarry. When I was a resident, obstetricians and midwives worked as usual until late in the pregnancy, until they helped others deliver their own stomach pains and went straight to the delivery bed to give birth themselves. I’ve encountered too many strange cases of “fetal maintenance” or “fetal preservation”, and one of them was a senior OB/GYN. Not long after her menopause, she announced that she was pregnant and took sick leave to lie in bed to “nurse the baby”, and came back to work after less than two weeks. Later, we learned that she was not pregnant at all, but just thought she was pregnant, and the “early pregnancy reaction”, lying in bed for less than two weeks menstruation came. How to choose a hospital and doctor Choosing a hospital for a baby is a bit like choosing a temple to burn incense, the hospital is the temple and the doctor is the monk. Some people burn incense to go to the temple, while others choose a monk. You may meet a small monk in a big temple, and a big monk in a small temple. If everything is normal during pregnancy and delivery, it’s the same where you give birth, and it’s the same who you go to see. But if there is a problem, or if there is an accident during delivery, it may end up differently in different places. If there are serious medical and surgical comorbidities or infectious diseases, it is best to choose the obstetrics and gynecology department of a general hospital; other than that, you can choose a general hospital or a hospital specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, and in hospitals with a large number of deliveries, the doctors will have more clinical experience; if it is a twin triplet or other fetal problems, you must go to an experienced, large fetal medicine center for consultation.