Healthy Living says recovery time is necessary between pregnancies

Many organizations are promoting family planning to ensure the wellness of family life. The health of the mother and the newborn can be at risk when pregnancies occur every year. In this week’s segment, Healthy Living looks at the importance of spacing pregnancies.

Marleni Cuellar reporting

Family planning is not an unfamiliar term. Organizations and other health authorities have advocated for planned pregnancies for years. Teaching techniques and offering family planning services is one of the main functions of some NGO’s. One of the critical areas is teaching women the need to properly space children. Gynecologist Dr Jose Guerra has delivered well over a thousand babies in his over twenty years of practice. He explains what is the adequate ‘space’ between pregnancies and why it is important to keep.

Dr Jose Guerra, Gynecologist & Obstetrician

dr. jose guerra

“The term correct is intergenetic interval and that is the space the time elapsed between two consecutive pregnant births. Usually the best time would be between fifteen to twenty-four months after in between babies.  The importance of the time space is because you recover from the first baby you recover all your nutrients your  hemoglobin , your calcium, your folic acid and your system go back to normal because when you’re pregnant everything change completely, from your hair to your toes.”

As Head of the Maternity Ward at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, Dr Guerra has seen numerous women visit the hospital yearly to have babies. Even after being advised, they return pregnant once again as they fall victim to a very common belief.

Dr Jose Guerra

“We have lots of patient that probably one year – two year we see every year at the hospital being pregnant and we advise them but I don’t know what’s happening. Most females believe that breastfeeding is a way of contraceptive. It’s true. It helps a lot but its not 100%. I have lots of experience with lots of patients who are fully breastfeeding and they get pregnant. That’s why there exists a specific contraceptive for breastfeeding mothers called progesterone.”

This is precisely why he urges new mothers to visit their gynecologist six weeks after giving birth to be able to discuss how they can prevent a consecutive pregnancy.  A look around our society though would make us feel that frequent pregnancies pose little threat to mothers or babies. This is certainly not the case, as he explains the complications most often seen with this situation.

Dr Jose Guerra

“If they get pregnant too often before the time expected the first thing can be premature babies the next thing can be the location of the placenta because when you deliver a baby the placenta left a scar on the uterus and so you can have your placenta previa, the placenta previa is the one that cover the cervix and you can bleed the whole pregnancy at the time of delivery you can have an atonic uterus what that means is your uterus will not contract and you will bleed. The next thing you can have is a ruptured uterus and a lot of complications and serious complications that can take you to maternal death.”

Unfortunately, through his practice, Dr Guerra has seen women of all ages return with consecutive pregnancies.

Dr Jose Guerra

“Why I’m going to ask a fifteen year old if they’re sexually active but usually I ask them when you had your last period, this ex girl when you had your last period. And her answer was Dr Guerra after my second kid. I was surprised because she was pregnant again, fifteen years old. So from now on, I ask all the patients are you sexually active because of that simple experience. I was shocked but I have to ask.”

Having children one after another within a year puts a lot of strain and tension on the mother. It can also affect the wellness of the entire family. The bottom line is that the body needs a chance to recover.

Dr Jose Guerra

“If you elapse if you go like every three years every four years of course nothing will happen because your body recovered but if you’re like this you’re not recovered. Remember the anemia after you give birth so that’s the time space, at least the two years at least recover fi get ready for the next one.”