WHY MEN SHOULD TAKE LEAD IN ACCOMPANYING PREGNANT WIVES FOR ANTENATAL CARE (ANC)

    

WHY MEN SHOULD TAKE LEAD IN ACCOMPANYING PREGNANT WIVES FOR ANTENATAL CARE (ANC)

The male partners have been encouraged to actively take part in supporting their pregnant wives during the antenatal visits as this will go a long way in preventing maternal mortality related complications among the pregnant mothers

A couple during Antenatal visit (Photo credit: Centerforglobaldata.org)

Often times the male partners have been blamed for failing to support their pregnant wives, something the health workers have attributed to child-birth related complications mostly caused as a result of stress that greatly leads to abortions or miscarriages among others and sometimes death of a mother and new born babies.

 

According to statistics Maternal mortality ratio is the number of women who die from pregnancy-related causes while pregnant or within 42 days of pregnancy termination per 100,000 live births. 

In 2017, the maternal mortality rate of Uganda stood at 375.00, which was a 1.57% decline from the year 2016.

https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/UGA/uganda/maternal-mortality-rate

 

The SDG global target is to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio (MMR) to less than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030. In addition to this global target, there are separate country-level targets: The primary national target is that by 2030, every country should reduce its MMR by at least two-thirds from its 2010 baseline. The secondary target, which applies to countries with the highest maternal mortality burdens, is that no country should have an MMR greater than 140 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030.

 

The district Health Educator for Soroti William Oriokot noted earlier that the pregnant mothers need to be loved by their husbands and given all the necessary support especially during the time for antenatal visits (ANC) to the health facilities as this will also promote raising of healthy babies.

                                            A mother during Antenatal visit (Photo credit: Save the Children).

   Samuel Omeke, now a father of four babies greatly acknowledged that had it not been because of his active involvement during the constant antenatal visits while his wife was expecting their first child, they wouldn’t have helped them to produce healthy babies.

 

                                      A visibly healthy and active baby (Photo credit: Elizabeth Akiror)

  According to Sr. Immaculate Iyura, a nursing officer and midwife at Princess Diana Memorial health Centre-IV in Northern Division Soroti municipality, the men have not participated enough when it comes especially to accompanying their wives for antenatal care visits at the health facility.

 ‘’The difficulty comes as a couple, you have been living together for more than four years and trust each other, and all of a sudden you tell them that one is infected (positive) and the other is not, it’s quite difficult to digest the situation, and it is difficult to counsel them on how to accept the situation and how to live knowing that your partner is infected, sometimes because of this, they get separated”, she explained.

  

Out of every ten mothers who either turn up for antenatal care services (ANC) or immunization schedules at the health centers, chances are that there is only one man or none accompanying his partner, Iyura added.

 With men taking the backseat in maternal and child health matters, Sr. Iyura is worried that this is likely to jeopardize government efforts in achieving the goal of reducing maternal mortality rates.

https://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1437427/soroti-poor-role-maternal-child-health-matters

 

  A report by the World Health Organization revealed that to achieve the full life-saving potential that Antenatal care (ANC) promises for women and babies, four visits providing essential evidence based interventions – a package often called focused antenatal care – are required.

  Essential interventions in ANC include identification and management of obstetric complications such as preeclampsia, tetanus toxoid immunization, intermittent preventive treatment for malaria during pregnancy (IPTp), and identification and management of infections including HIV, syphilis and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

 

  ANC is also an opportunity to promote the use of skilled attendance at birth and healthy behaviors such as breastfeeding, early postnatal care, and planning for optimal pregnancy spacing. Many of these opportunities continue to be missed, even though over two-thirds of pregnant women receive at least one antenatal visit. How can we strengthen ANC to provide the priority interventions, especially given Africa’s current critical shortage of human resources for health? Are there particular barriers or challenges to increasing coverage and quality that could be overcome?

 

what is Antenatal Care (ANC)

  According to UNICEF, Antenatal care is essential for protecting the health of women and their unborn children. Through this form of preventive health care, women and men can learn from skilled health personnel about healthy behaviors during pregnancy, better understand warning signs during pregnancy and childbirth, and receive social, emotional and psychological support at this critical time in their lives.

 

 Through antenatal care, pregnant women can also access micronutrient supplementation, treatment for hypertension to prevent eclampsia, as well as immunization against tetanus. Antenatal care can also provide HIV testing and medications to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. In areas where malaria is endemic, health personnel can provide pregnant women with medications and insecticide-treated mosquito nets to help prevent this debilitating and sometimes deadly disease.

https://data.unicef.org/topic/maternal-health/antenatal-care/

 

Who benefits when men attend antenatal care with their partners?

  Earlier studies have shown that support from a male partner (this is often known as male partner engagement or participation) is associated with a number of benefits including enhanced maternal HIV testing during pregnancy, increased initiation and adherence to maternal antiretroviral therapy (ART), improved HIV communication and prevention among couples, and decreased vertical transmission, with attendant increase in HIV-free infant survival. There have also been suggestions that male partner participation in antenatal care might help to improve men’s rates of HIV diagnosis and treatment.

  

 Healthcare workers and female service users reported various benefits of couples attending HIV testing together. Many women said that their clinic has a deliberate policy of seeing women who attend with their male partner first (although an unintended result of this is that women who attend alone often have to wait). 

  

Some healthcare workers in Uganda mentioned that when men attended clinics it became easier to talk openly about HIV status, to initiate ART and to support each other’s engagement in care including collecting meds when one of them was ill or busy. Some healthcare workers and women service users felt that including partners brought benefits for the unborn child in preparing for the birth and in protection from HIV.

https://www.aidsmap.com/news/oct-2020/who-benefits-when-men-attend-antenatal-care-their-partners

 

What will happen during the ANC appointments?

   There will be a number of checks, scans, tests and discussions, such as:

• when the baby is due, what trimester you are in and what this means for you and your baby
• finding out about your medical history, general health and how any previous pregnancies were
• discussing any medication you are taking
• ensuring you are up to date with cervical screening
• making sure your mental health is OK, and supporting you if you have depression or anxiety
• checking your blood pressure and weight and testing your urine
• organizing blood tests and screening
• providing advice on healthy eating and lifestyle changes
• feeling and measuring your tummy, and listening to the baby's heartbeat
• asking you about your home environment, work and what support you have. If you are experiencing family violence, this is a good opportunity for you to discuss it
• checking about any physical symptoms that may be bothering you
• running through your birth plan with you
• talking about if something doesn't go to plan during the birth
• finding out about antenatal classes
• advice about taking your baby home, feeding them and other care