|
Pre- and Post Natal Care
Health care before and after the crucial time of delivery can save the lives of mothers and babies. It can also serve as an important point of entry for women and their infants to health information and services. This can be especially important during emergency situations, when infant and maternal mortality soars.
Prenatal care can identify general health problems that need to be treated. It can raise awareness of danger signs to look for during pregnancy. Prenatal care should also address the special nutritional needs of pregnant women. Health care providers must be trained to detect anaemia and other vitamin deficiencies that can put the mother and her unborn baby at risk. Good prenatal care and voluntary testing and counselling can also minimize the risk of HIV transmission from HIV-positive parents to their unborn children.
Up to 50 per cent of all maternal deaths in the first 48 hours after delivery. And the death of a mother poses a high risk for her newborn. Post-partum care can mean the difference between life and death for both. Whether conducted in a health facility or through a visit by a midwife or trained birth attendant, post-partum care can assess the mother’s general condition after childbirth and identify haemorrhage, hypertension, infection and other life-threatening conditions that may require urgent medical attention.
Post-partum care is also an opportunity for the midwife or health worker to assess the health of the newborn and talk to the mother about infant care, breastfeeding and nutrition. Sensitive counselling is especially important if the mother is HIV-positive and risks transmitting the virus to her child through her breastmilk.
UNFPA emergency health kits include the tools health workers need to provide basic prenatal care for everything from medical examinations to medicines and supplies to prevent malnutrition, malaria and other threats to a mother’s health. UNFPA also provides training for health workers and midwives to make sure women receive the care they need during all phases of pregnancy and childbirth. The Fund also strives to make sure pregnant and lactating women get the extra nutrition they need during this period.
The Fund supports post-partum care through the provision of supplies, medicine, equipment and training to enable health workers to identify and treat life-threatening complications and share information with mothers regarding infant care and family planning.
Mini-vans carrying health care workers and supplies deliver maternal and child health services to women in remote, earthquake-affected areas of Pakistan. A team of obstetricians, general practitioners and midwives visit the camps for those displaced by civil strife in Timor-Leste daily to provide antenatal care, including tetanus vaccinations and supplementary food provided by the World Food Programme. During Niger’s food crisis, UNFPA’s support encouraged women to seek antenatal care by linking visits to the clinic with supplies of cereal, pulses and oil.
 Back to top
|
HOME:
POPULATION ISSUES:
ASSISTING IN EMERGENCIES:
Protecting reproductive health:
Pre- and Post Natal Care 
