The Department of Health in Region B, in collaboration with various stakeholders, held an awareness event to educate the community about the importance of early bookings and preventing maternal and neonatal complications.
The Maternal Health Wellness Day was held in Windsor Recreation Centre.
Antenatal care early booking refers to a pregnant woman presenting herself at a health establishment before her pregnancy reaches 20 weeks of gestation. Pregnant women presenting at a health establishment after 20 weeks of gestation are prone to complications that may lead to both maternal and neonatal death if not attended too early in pregnancy.
Community came out in numbers especially women to gain valuable knowledge and to show support to the insightful initiative.
Health screening including HIV and blood pressure tests were conducted for free by stakeholders that also exhibited their services products.
Among the stakeholders was, Anova Health, Old Mutual, Health Promotion Desks. Windsor Community Support Services and Xplorenation Security donated with sanitary pads and baby nappies that were given to women that attended the wellness.
Operational manager maternal health and event organiser Taki Ramuthaga explained that the theme for the event was ante-natal and early booking and they chose Windsor because they noted on the yearly reports that their stats were dropping.
“We decided to come here so we can make awareness about the importance of early booking. If you book early, it means that you have higher chances of having healthy baby or healthy outcome of pregnancy.”
Windsor clinic catchment area covers suburbs such as Windsor East, Windsor West, Cresta, Northcliff, Parts of Roosevelt Park, Parktown, Linden, Darrenwood, Linden Extension Aldara Park, Kelland, Rand Park and Robindale. Other communities as far as Hillbrow, Cosmo City and Diepsloot are utilizing the facility.
Residents also used the platform to voice out the challenges they face at their clinic and the high rate of gender-based violence in the area.
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