The City of Johannesburg’s Health Department has noticed a worrying trend among expectant mothers who access antenatal care way too late in their pregnancy.
“This trend is not only worrying, but expectant mothers are putting their lives and the lives of their unborn children at high risk,” says Isaac Morake, Region F’s Maternal Health Ops Manager.
The national health guideline for pregnant women advices women to visit clinics for antenatal care at 12 weeks or as soon as they discover that they are pregnant.
“But some mothers do not come early enough. Some of the critical screening we do include test for congenital syphilis, management of pregnancy-induced hypertension and diabetes. We also do HIV counselling and testing, provide the prevention of mother to child HIV-Aids transmission and nutritional assessment,” says Morake.
“The most common route of infection for HIV positive children under five years of age is through mother to child transmission. Preventing mother to child transmission of HIV would be the main intervention to reduce HIV infection among children.”
Transmission of HIV from a mother to her infant can take place during pregnancy, labour, delivery and after birth through breastfeeding especially with mixed feeding. Therefore booking early may help the HIV positive mother to access treatment on timey and give birth to an HIV-negative child.
If expectant mothers do not attend free antenatal care at more than 80 City clinics, that could result in premature births, postnatal bleeding due to undetected anemia (iron deficiency), delayed initiation of ARVs and eclampsia (undiagnosed hypertension). The general objective of antenatal care is to ensure the best possible pregnancy outcomes for pregnant women and their unborn babies through optimal physical and psychological preparation before delivery.
In conclusion, Morake says: “Antenatal classes assist mothers in taking better choices for the health of their newborn baby, continued care, free sms services on mom-connect, which give the mother information on all body changes, danger signs, labour signs, emergency contact numbers and self-care during pregnancy. All these are available for free in clinics in the City of Johannesburg.”
