By Godfred A. Polkuu
Bolgatanga, June 2, GNA – Madam Mary Azika, a Senior Midwifery Officer (SMO) at the Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compound at Daporitindongo, in the Bolgatanga Municipality, has admonished young girls to study their menstrual cycle to avoid soiling themselves in public.
She said it was embarrassing for females who unexpectedly menstruated in public and soil themselves and stressed the need for women, especially young girls within the menstruation age to know their cycle and manage themselves properly to avoid any embarrassment in public.
She explained that menstruation is the monthly blood flow from the vagina of a female, which was part of the development stages of life of females, “So if a female has her menstrual flow, it shows that she is a woman, and everything is normal with her.”
Madam Azika, who spoke to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview at her facility to mark the International Menstrual Hygiene Day, insisted that “If a young girl starts to menstruate, she should know her cycle so that she does not mess herself up in public.”
The International Menstrual Hygiene Day is marked annually on May 28, to highlight the importance of good menstrual hygiene.
This year’s celebration is on the theme: “#PeriodFriendlyWorld.”
Madam Azika advised women who menstruated to endeavour to always get their sanitary pads in readiness for their menses, “If they know they would menstruate in two or three days time, they should at least keep some sanitary pads in their bags so that at any point in time they get a flow, they will not mess themselves up”.
Touching on personal hygiene during menstruation, the SMO emphasized the need for females who menstruated to bath twice a day and change their sanitary pad anything it was wet.
She said it was not hygienic to bath once and use the same sanitary pad for the whole day, “Normally, when we advise them to bath twice a day, they think that once they put the pad on in the morning after bathing, they have to leave it on until they bath again in the evening and change.
“No, that is wrong, they must change the pad anytime it gets wet, and properly wash their hands after changing the pad. They should also dispose the used pad properly,” Madam Azika advised.
She acknowledged that education on proper disposal of used sanitary pads had been adhered to, and said it was not common to see used sanitary pads in the environment.
She urged family members, especially fathers to support their girl children with sanitary pads monthly to enable them to go through the menstrual cycle successfully, “We want the men to get involved. They should not think that is only women who should buy pads for their girl children.”
Madam Azika further admonished women who missed their menses to immediately report to the nearest health facility for care, and said for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, it was important for expectant mothers to visit the facility for care.
“If they keep the pregnancy and visit the facility by 20, 24 or 30 weeks, they will miss a lot of the services we render to pregnant women,” the SMO advised.
GNA