WATCH: Pregnant mothers’ pep talk
Take time every day to relax, rest and get enough sleep-nap if you need to, be realistic of what you expect of yourself.
A nurse at the antenatal care in South Rand Hospital, Phindile Mlambo, led the pregnancy talk with expectant mothers during Pregnancy Awareness Week on February 16.
The theme of the awareness was ‘promotion of healthy pregnancy and safe motherhood’. The awareness was to inform the pregnant mothers why they need to come early into the hospital.
Mlambo said before you fall pregnant you need to do pre-conception care, that’s when you go for consultation to determine that everything is fine for you to fall pregnant.
“Remember there are pre-existing conditions and they need to be controlled so that they don’t give you problems during pregnancy, like high blood pressure which sometimes causes miscarriages.
“You need to book as soon as you missed your first period. This will help you to start your antenatal classes. And make sure that you come to the clinic and test to make sure you are pregnant because you can miss your periods due to other gynecologic problems.
“Once you find that you are pregnant, you need to do vital signs to screen for any infections like sexually transmitted ones that can affect the baby. We give you some injections that are going to protect the unborn child. We test your iron, high blood pressure and your urine to make sure that you are free and relaxed, and if there are problems we can detect them as early as possible,” she explained.
In the first trimester folic acid is given to the mothers as it helps prevent birth defects known as neural tube defects, including spina bifida, a condition that affects the spine of the baby.
“You see why it is important to come to the clinic immediately after you’ve missed your first period? We want you to get a healthy baby. Also if you are pregnant please refrain from eating soil and ice cubes as this decreases the level of iron in your body, this hurts us. Remember you need to share your blood with the baby,” she said.
She also touched on the topic of HIV and Aids. “All pregnant women need to be tested for HIV. You do it on the pre-conception care, I talked about earlier. It is very important that you test with your partner because this journey is for both mother and father.
“Antenatal classes are for both, we have passed that era where the mother needs to go alone.
“And remember if you test positive for HIV you need to start treatment immediately to prevent passing it to the child, and if you test negative, we want you to remain negative, hence we encourage you to condoms. The baby needs to be safe,” noted Mlambo.
