Self motherhood

Motherhood in its simplest meaning can be defined as a state of being a mother. Safe motherhood means ensuring that all women receive the care they need to be safe and healthy throughout pregnancy child birth.

The safe motherhood initiative is world wide effort that aims to reduced the number of death and illness associated with pregnancy and child birth. Safe motherhood can be achieved by providing high quality maternal health serviced ti all women during pregnancy,child birth and the post mar tum period. Service to help make motherhood safer include:care by skilled health personnel before, during and after childbirth and emergency care for life. Threatening obstetric complication. Good maternal health is the well being of the mother before during and after the baby's birth.

Preventing and managing those problems require a well functioning health system that provides accessible, high quality care from the household to the hospital level. In addition, a large of social, economic and cultural factors also contribute to women;s poor health before during and after pregnancy.Millions of women do not have access to good quality health services during pregnancy and child birth especially women who are poor uneducated or who live in rural areas. In case of Nepal, the situation of maternal health status is more critical Nepal demographic and health survey shows that one in two percent women receive untenable car, with 28 percent receiving care from a doctor or nurse, midwife or auxiliary health workers, 3 percent receive care from a maternal and child health worker and, 6 percent receive care from village health worker. Most Nepalese women who receive antenatal get if at a relatively late safe in their pregnancy and do not make the minimum recommended number of antenatal visit only one in seven women (14 percent) makes four more visits during their in tire pregnancy, while 16 percent of women report that their first visit occurred to less then four month of pregnancy. Forty five percent of women receive two or more doses of tetanus taxied injections during their most recent pregnancy.

The Prime Massages Related to Safe Motherhood

The following Prime massages related to safe motherhood are the most useful for safe motherhood.

1. The risk of child birth can be drastically reduced by going to the nearest health worker for regular check-ups during pregnancy because a health worker will help the women to Have a safe birth and a healthy baby.
2. A trained person should assist at every birth because a trained birth attendant will know how to keep the birth clean and reduce the risk of infection.
3. To reduce the dangers of pregnancy and child birth ,all families should know the warning signs . It is important of pregnant woman, their husbands ,and other family members , to know the signs which indicate that extra care , and regular visits to a health workers are needed.

• Warning signs before pregnancy and during pregnancy are listed as follows:
  
  (a)Warning signs before pregnancy begins:
  
• An interval of less than two years since the last birth.
• woman less than 18 or more than 35 years.
• Woman has four or more previous premature birth .
• woman has had a previous premature miscarriage abortion or still birth.
• Woman weight less than 38kg before pregnancy .
• Woman measures less than 145 cm in height .
• Woman had a previous convulsion.
• Woman had a goiter, HIV AIDS, sexually turnsmitted disease or other medical problems such as heart disease, lungs diseases etc.

(b) Warning sings developing during pregnancy:

• failing to gain weight at least 6kg should be gained in pregnancy.
• Unusual swelling of legs, arms or face
• Woman has had previous convulsion
• Woman has goiter and or other medical problems pf heart lungs etc.
• paleness of inside eyelids ( should be red or pink)

(c) Five sings which mean get help immediately:

• Bleeding from the vagina during pregnancy
• severe headache (sign of high blood pressure
• Severe vomiting
• High fever
• Blurring of vision

(4) Unless she is already overweight a woman needs more food during pregnancy. All pregnant woman need more rest.


(5) Spacing pregnancies at least two year apart and avoiding pregnancies below the age of 18 and above the age of 35 years drastically reduces the dangers of child bearing.


(6) Girls who are healthy and well fed during their own childhood and teenage years have fewer problems in pregnancy and childbirth.


(7) Smoking among pregnant woman increases risks of pregnancy and endangers the health of the infant.