Expectant mothers in Kiambu Sub-County have been advised to visit hospital early enough for diagnostic purposes to avoid complexities during delivery.
Speaking from her office on Thursday, Teresiah Mbua, the nursing service manager at Kiambu Hospital urged expectant mothers to visit hospitals when they realised they were pregnant. In addition, they have to attend at least four clinics as stipulated by the hospital for expectant mothers.
“In May, we had 13 stillbirths and in June we had 10. This is a clear indication that mothers are heeding our call,” said Mbua.
A stillbirth is a term used to refer to fresh births that occur during delivery. Mbua said that there are several factors which lead to stillbirths one of them being hypertension, haemorrhage (APH) commonly known to people as bleeding. This denies the foetus food, blood and oxygen which are vital for development.
Lucy Ng’ang’a, a nursing officer at the same hospital said that fewer number of nurses as compared to the high number of deliveries is another big challenge. She urged mothers to go for scanning early enough to detect any problem.
Judy Njeri a first-time mother said that she had visited the hospital for check-ups because she wanted to be certain that her delivery will not have any complications.
The county’s hospitals will receive 50 more nurses who will be distributed evenly to curb the shortage of their services.