A HIGH risk pregnancy is any condition that introduces an increased one to the life of mother or child or both, Maternal and Child Health Director in the Ministry, D. Janice Woolford said Tuesday.
She said the efforts of her unit are presently putting focus on making health workers aware of the criteria, enabling them to identify high risk pregnancies.
In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle on the sidelines of a related three-day workshop, Woolford said early identification leads to early interventions and, ultimately, improvements in the system.
“There are some mothers who are high risk and others who are not. With the criteria, the health workers will be able to assess and identify risks and better manage the persons,” she said.
According to her, awareness of what high risk pregnancies are, the referral of them to the next level of care and conditions under which they exist are quintessential.
She noted that the primary success with high risk pregnancies is early identification and prompt referral to higher level of care.
However, Woolford said: “We need to keep working in this area to strengthen it and improve on delivery of health care.”
She reiterated that the early identification of high risk pregnancies by health care providers is a must.
Woolford acknowledged that challenges in maternal and child health are inherent in most circumstances and pointed out that some are the remoteness of areas which limit health workers and specialist care.
“We are working amidst a lot of challenges to meet our goals,” she remarked.
Gratitude
Woolford expressed her gratitude to all the partnering agencies that support her unit, specially mentioning the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for funding through ‘The Maternal Thematic Fund’.
She said that source is to strengthen national health systems, rather than create parallel structures and help governments overcome obstacles that prevent their own maternal health plans from succeeding.
Its aid aims to:
* build political and social commitment to maternal health;
* assist country health systems to scale up provision of a full spectrum of maternal health care;
* improve access to maternal health services, such as having a skilled health professional present at delivery and increased access to emergency obstetric care, especially for those most impoverished and
* empower individuals to exercise their rights to quality maternal health care.
Woolford said ongoing efforts are being assessed at health care delivery centres in Georgetown and within the regions.
“We are looking at what are some of the issues and then we will have a master plan as to how we are going to deal with those issues,” she said.Woolford said the overall expectation is better management of high risk pregnancies with the aim of reducing maternal mortality rates.
(Vanessa Narine)