A Paediatrician, Dr Miram Ezekwe, on Tuesday stressed the need for pregnant women residing in rural areas, to always go for antenatal care, as part of efforts to promote access to health care services.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Ezekwe, who is the Chief Programme Officer of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS, gave the advice in Bwari, headquarters of the Bwari Area Council in the FCT, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
She said that low awareness about the importance of antenatal in rural communities had contributed to the increasing rate of maternal and infant mortality.
Ezekwe, therefore, stressed the need to create awareness so as to encourage pregnant women to go for pre-natal and antenatal checks regularly.
She said that lack of awareness of the importance of antenatal services was hindering the growth of such services.
“It is necessary to establish a communication level intervention with pregnant women; those of them in the rural areas need to seek medical advice, to be able to avoid health complications.
“We must solve their problem of limited access to available health care facilities within their domain.
“The problem is not just about pregnant women alone; we also have issues with men who do not permit their pregnant wives to go for antenatal care.
“We have to educate men within such communities, so that they can permit their wives to always access pre-natal and antenatal services during pregnancy.
“Antenatal is the in-road into full health care during which useful information and right interventions are given about pregnancy, to help prevent complications.”
Ezekwe commended the partnership between the U.S. Embassy, the Bwari Area Council and the Tabitha Cumi Foundation, for establishing the only clinic in Mapa community in Bwari. (NAN)
