Healthy Living looks at maternal mortality
Family planning is largely seen as a way to reduce mortality. Healthy Living looks at one organization that offers options in Belize.
Marleni Cuellar, Reporting
According to Family Health International “At least half a million women die each year of pregnancy-related causes. Ninety-nine percent live in developing countries.” The obvious approach to remedy this issue is ensuring safer deliveries. One of the advocated approaches is careful family planning. Family planning is considered an important practice in the reduction of maternal mortality.
Nurse Ivorine Bulwer is the director of clinical services at the Belize Family Life Association. B.F.L.A. has a focus on the sexual and reproductive health rights of individuals and offers family planning services in Belize.
Nurse Ivorine Bulwer, Director of Clinical Services, BFLA
“One of the things in family planning, you look at early pregnancy, young women can run into problems. You looking at late pregnancy, over thirty-five they can run into problems. Frequent pregnancies, it’s not good for the woman’s level of wellness. The more pregnancy you have the baby don’t care if you’re not well or well. Whatever nutrients are there the child is going to take it. So the frequency of the pregnancy puts a woman at risk and the frequency of the pregnancy can interfere with the wellness of the entire family. So when we look at family planning, as it states, it is planning a family. It is not just having babies, but we’re looking at the wellness of the entire family; emotional wellness, psychological wellness, physical wellness and that whole growth and psychological wellness as a family approach. 2005 statistics for Belize showed the maternal mortality ratio per live births, one hundred and thirty-seven women died per one hundred thousand live births. That’s an alarming statistic.”
This is precisely the reason why the B.F.L.A. provides family planning services to Belizeans of all ages by helping partners to determine when they should get pregnant, if they can afford a pregnancy and encouraging the proper spacing of children.
Nurse Ivorine Bulwer
“BFLA as it relates to services, as it relates to family planning, we do have a clinic, the NHI clinic, where we do provide the maternal and child health services. Each and every woman that comes for services are counseled. And as it relates to family planning, there is a lot of listening because it is not an imposition. We listen, we make that individual comfortable, it’s done in privacy. I must add we have a very mature and highly trained staff. We ensure that we do a health assessment and there we ask those questions because we need to assist the women in making the right choice. And we share with that woman the various options that are available. And even the different option that the women may choose, we look at the different side effects, we discuss that with that women. The woman will receive a card only when she comes to visit the clinic there’s the follow up, there’ still ongoing, finding out from that woman how she’s doing, how she’s responding to the contraception that she’s taking. We treat symptomatic and that is in accordance with the Ministry of Health guidelines.”
“The family planning services offered, we have the rhythm method, abstinence, we’re looking at the hormonal tablets or injection, the intra-uterine device, there’ sonly one type that we utilize here and the permanent sterilization, normally it’s a days case we have a reputable obstetrician gynecologist who works here on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays and those are the days the surgery is done.”
Having a planned approach reduces the complications that a woman may encounter with early pregnancies and pregnancies that are less than two years apart. The counseling that is offered at the BFLA ensures that there is an individualistic approach to each family’s needs.
Nurse Ivorine Bulwer
“One of the thing is it is not a one size fit all. We are very cognizant of persons’ religious beliefs, practices; we are cognizant of cultural practices so we are very aware and sensitive to ensure that we are diverse with our intervention.”
Family planning is seen as the most effective way of reducing maternal deaths. In essence, the benefits of planning a family is that it offers options based on personal lifestyle and it ensures the safety of the lives of both the mother and child.
