PREGNANCY IS RISKY BUT IT CAN BE SAFE

Decision to get pregnant is a decision to take a risk. It can take lives. You can lose your life or that of your baby or both if you are not well informed about the birth process and issues that can arise from it. Pregnancy is not a state of health. All pregnant women should be aware of this fact.

A pregnant woman can be healthy at this moment and become very sick the next moment.

The spouses need to know this fact (safe men’s forum).

Mentors of pregnant women need also to know this fact. The risks can be mitigated by appropriate actions by all involved including the birth care giver.   

All pregnant women can have safe delivery if all concerned respond appropriately to forestall or handle risky challenges that crop up.

Pregnancy is a state of health – is a wrong thought.

I can deliver anywhere I want or like – is a wrong thought.

Unskilled birth attendants can facilitate death. They have no training to prempt, detect or handle complications that can arise during pregnancy, labour and delivery.

Ill health can be induced by handlers of pregnancy and child birth. Ill health can arise spontaneously as pregnancy advances or during labour and delivery.

v High blood pressure

v Anaemia

v Bleeding during pregnancy, before labour and delivery or after delivery.

Wrong thoughts, wrong ideas - are reasons for unsafe child birth. Prompt and appropriate response saves lives.

A pregnant woman or her baby can die because of issues that can arise out of the pregnancy.

The baby is usually the first victim of unsafe and unskilled childbirth. Actions and responses are part of the big picture.

Responses to pregnancy by the woman, spouse, mentors, and care givers determine its outcome. Poor response, poor outcome. Appropriate response, good outcome. Inappropriate response, poor outcome. No response is inappropriate response.

Pregnancy is an event or occurrence and people must respond to it.

Complications is an event. The response to it determines also the outcome.

Books on pregnancy-related topics if read can influence response to pregnancy positively. It can influence the reader to respond appropriately  to pregnancy.

Infections from the hands, mouths and nostrils  of unsafe care givers to laboring women can cause their demise.

People don’t know that pregnancy is an event that can take lives. If they do, they can decide not to be pregnant (Contraceptive practice). They can also decide to save in order to respond appropriately to issues that may arise.

“ I shall deliver like the Hebrew women,” make people think there will be no risk to pregnancy. When complications arise they are ill-prepared to handle it. That you went through pregnancy and have no problems does not mean that pregnancy is not risky. It does not mean that the next pregnancy will also be risk-free.

To be on the safe side every pregnant woman should be handled by skilled birth attendants.

A risky journey does not mean that some people cannot still go through it without problems. It means that everybody has to go through that journey fully alert and prepared to avoid or handle challenges that can arise.

Pregnancy is risky because it has potentials for causing death or severe illness. Some factors can trigger such complications. That one person died solely because she was pregnant is enough to regard pregnancy as risky. No child is born to die.

Pregnancy is risky, but many people don’t know. Help spread the information. Denying this fact is not faith but delusion – believing a lie. Something can be done to make it safe. Pregnancy is the major reason for death of young women across the world.

The Hebrew women mentioned in the bible;

v Married as virgins

v  Had a righteous covenant relationship with God

v Had antenatal child birth care in a government -recognized health facility.

v Were attended to by qualified midwives and doctors who had relevant trainings and certificates to show

v Did not deliver on mats, pumpkin leaves or bare floors

v Were not delivered  by  uneducated birth attendants who do not know risks associated with pregnancy

v Were not delivered by people who have no capacity to respond to life-threatening complications.

Pregnancy is risky but the risk can be preempted, avoided or handled by trained personnel working in a place with comprehensive emergency obstetric care facilities and personnel. Risk – taking – is the practice of doing something that involves risks in order to achieve something.

Any risky venture requires preparations to avoid or mitigate risk that can arise.

God has provided a way to make pregnancy safe – skilled child birth care. Believing it is faith – it is believing the truth.

There is but one BEST way to solve every situation that confronts you. That BEST way is the truth. To know it is to make you free from all worry or trouble in connection with that situation. For if it is met in the right way only good can come out of it. If you know that even though pregnancy is risky but that you can be safe if you subscribe to skilled care, anxiety, doubt, fear will be gone as you actually subscribe to skilled care.   

Faith will arise in your heart for safety since you know you are going about that pregnancy the best way.

The pregnant woman needs to know pregnancy is risky but the risks can be handled through skilled care.

Pregnant women can take appropriate steps to ensure their safety.

How? By listening to and watching pregnancy-related public enlightenment programmes on:

v TV

v Radio

v Internet

v Churches, Mosques

v Bill boards

v Books and Booklets

v Pamphlets

v Tracts

Pregnancy is risky. Do not leave it to chance. Subscribe to skilled care. Complications that take lives can arise at any stage. Get to know more about pregnancy and how to be safe.

Visit the Safe Motherhood Emp. and Enlight Initative (SMEEI). Getting pregnant may mean the end of your life. Get to know how to be safe. Know how to avoid/handle pregnancy – related life – threatening complications.

Having sex may mean the end of your life.

Get to know how to have safe sex. Denial of the risk of pregnancy is not faith but delusion – believing a lie.

The truth is that almost all pregnant women can be safe inspite of the risks if they subscribe to skilled care.

I shall deliver like the Hebrew women is delusion if skilled care is avoided.

Pregnancy is risky but you can be safe if you follow instructions of professional child birth care givers.

To think there is no risk to pregnancy is a wrong thought. That kind of thought can lead to complacency and death.

Complacency means

v No antenatal care

v Poor antenatal care

v Avoiding needed caesarean section

v No tetanus immunization

v No Rhogam for women with Rhesus negative blood group

v No savings towards delivery

v Ignoring signs of complications like

·       Antepartum hemorrhage (bleeding before delivery)

·       Premature rupture of membranes

·       Prolonged labour

v Avoiding skilled antenatal care

v Ignoring treatments needed during pregnancy – malaria treatment, Typhoid treatment, cerclage for women with cervical incompetence.

v Doing nothing about prolonged pregnancy

The risk of pregnancy is the reason people are trained to handle pregnancy. It is wisdom to make use of such trained medical personnel. Giving to people who have no training when pregnant can mean the end of your life and that of your baby. It can also mean frustrations for the rest of your life if you survive the pregnancy.