Roles of Antenatal Care Visits in Fighting Maternal Mortality
Yesterday was not the best of days where you smile for the risks people take with their lives... An utter gamble that is really worthless.
Is it that most persons are not really medically aware?
Or
Is it actually that we have the knowledge but prefer taking the easier way out?
Antenatal care for a pregnant woman should not be dependent on the financial strength of the family, it is a compulsory thing and the earlier we see it that way the better for us all
I mean, you are hanging two lives on the thread of you do not have money? That is really not nice at all.
Antenatal Care could be defined as the care a pregnant woman receives from conception till delivery to ensure that the health of the baby as well as the mother remains at optimal level.
Once a woman is pregnant and she confirms that, the next line of action should be to visit the nearby hospital or maternity center where she will be booked for antenatal cares.
ANC visits offers lots of good things, all for the well being of the mother and child...
Routine Drugs:
At the start of antenatal care, the woman is given some drugs which will be helpful to her and the baby.
The drugs included but not limited to:
Fersolate: This is a haematinics that helps in blood production and keeps your hemoglobin level at the required level good for your baby and yourself.
Sulphadoxine Pyrimethamine: This is a malaria prophylaxis.
Malaria is endemic in our country, Nigeria and it is a very fatal illness in pregnancy, hence the need to come for antenatal for this prophylaxis to be given so you don't suffer it at all.Multivitamins:
Vitamins help in many aspects to ensure the healthy growing of your child....
Vitamin B9 which is also called folic acid helps to prevent neural disorders and should be ideally started before conception.
Vitamin C helps in the tissue repair through hydroxylation of proline and lysine and also in the absorption of iron for the production of blood.
Vitamin A helps in development of the fetal eyes.
- Tetanus toxoid vaccines
helps in preventing tetanus infection for the baby and mother.
Pregnancy are graded in many ways and one of them is grading according to risks..
High risk pregnancies should be managed in a tertiary facility where there are available equipment and manpower to perform emergency surgeries.
ANC helps in detecting pregnancies in this category and informs the mothers to make the necessary arrangements ahead of time.
Pregnancy period is not easy at all and also are the requirements for a successful delivery.
ANC helps detect complications in pregnancy early and make plans to avert or keep them at bay thereby reducing the high rate of maternal mortality we suffer in our country.
It is also a great avenue of managing women who already have underlying illnesses before pregnancy because pregnancy worsens almost all illnesses.
Especially for the primigravidas (women who are pregnant for the first time), ANC visits helps them to learn a lot about labour and other ways to take care of the baby even before their mum comes through the various education and seminars which includes; how to breastfeed a baby, signs of labour and others...
These are the few things you get to benefit from coming to ANC visits and you believe with me that every pregnant woman out there deserves to get them all.
To our men out there, even before you think of getting your wife pregnant, make plans for her ANC and by so doing, we will get to fight off maternal mortality or reduce them to the barest minimum.
This post was inspired by what I saw in the clinic today where a pregnant woman walked in with a pregnancy of 6 months old complaining of other symptoms whereas she was yet to be registered in any maternity or hospital for her routine antenatal visits.
We Can Do Better!!!
We Really Can!!!
Thanks for reading and have a nice day
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