By Naa Shormei Odonkor, GNA
Kumasi, June 1, GNA – Ms. Abigail Esinam Apau, a Senior Midwifery Officer has challenged the popular question, “What do women bring to the table?”, arguing that women are the very foundation upon which families are built.
According to her, women contribute far more than is often acknowledged, as they carry and nurture life, ensuring the continuity of families and society.
Addressing pregnant women during an antenatal education session on preeclampsia and neonatal jaundice, she said the physical, emotional and health risks associated with childbirth underscore the immense value women bring to the table.
She explained that the risk involved in carrying a baby to full term (nine months) and child delivery was enough contribution a woman could bring to the ‘table’.
Ms. Apau said women sacrificed their body, mental health, emotions and well-being to become pregnant as they could attain High Blood Pressure (BP) and other health conditions including death.
Additionally, women are placed on special medications for the period of pregnancy till birth to protect them and their babies before and after delivery.
These sacrifices made by women, Ms. Apau stated, could not be undermined by men since they could not go through the process of pregnancy and childbirth.
She explained that when a pregnant woman develops high blood pressure after the 20th week of pregnancy, the condition is known as Pregnancy Induced Hypertension (PIH), also referred to as preeclampsia.
This condition may not be reversed until the child has been delivered and sometimes the condition could live with the woman forever, to become chronic hypertension
Midwife Apau noted that an expectant mother with PIH is placed on BP medication to manage the condition even though the condition could get worse as the baby grows in the womb.
She, therefore, emphasised the importance of attending antenatal regularly for the midwives to educate and assess the health conditions of pregnant women.
This, she indicated, will help administer the right medication and treatment on time to prevent miscarriages or loss of both the lives of the mother and baby.
Educating the pregnant women on neonatal jaundice, Midwife Apau said women with sickle cell conditions, low HB, risked giving birth to jaundiced babies.
She observed that there were various risk factors to delivering jaundiced babies, however, low Haemoglobin (HB) contributed most to jaundice in babies.
She stressed the importance of always taking the iron and folic acid medications prescribed by the midwives to promote high HB in pregnancy.
The Midwife further advised pregnant women to eat healthy foods, sleep under treated mosquito nets and practice good hygiene for a safe pregnancy journey.
Midwife Apau, therefore, encouraged women not to downplay their contributions towards building a home as they are the main table of the home that men must cherish and rather bring important things to ‘this table.’
GNA
Edited by Yussif Ibrahim/Kenneth Odeng Adade
Reporter: Naa Shormei Odonkor