What is the Importance of Maternal Health Checks Before, During, and After Pregnancy

Being a mother is the happiest moment in a woman’s life. To have a safe and comfortable pregnancy journey, you need to go through several pregnancy blood tests, from confirming your pregnancy with a hCG test to knowing your and your child’s health status with various other tests. 

Through this blog, let’s understand the significance of maternal health checks by highlighting pregnancy blood tests and the common issues women face during gestation. 

What are the Most Common Maternal Health Issues?

Pregnancy often comes with various complications. Some of the common maternal health issues are:

Gestational Diabetes
During pregnancy, many hormonal imbalances occur. When your body doesn’t produce sufficient insulin, which transports glucose to your bloodstream, gestational diabetes may result. A pregnancy blood test can check if you have developed such a condition. Following a treatment plan as outlined by your doctor can reduce the problems. 

Infections
Many bacterial and viral infections can cause complications during pregnancy. These include yeast infections, UTIs, group B strep, and bacterial vaginosis. STIs are also included in maternal health issues. Many infections may also pass to the foetus during pregnancy. 

Vaginal Bleeding
Excessive bleeding indicates high risk pregnancy and requires immediate medical assistance. You should contact your health provider if you observe bleeding throughout the pregnancy. 

Preterm Labour
Preterm (early) labour occurs when you go into labour before 37 weeks of gestation. This might result in your baby being born underweight or with undeveloped organs.

Why is Maternal Health Important During Pregnancy?

Maternal health involves a woman's health during pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal period. For both mothers and their newborns, each stage of pregnancy should be full of positive experiences, allowing them to realise their overall health and wellness potential. Though progress has been made in maternal health, there were 23,800 maternal deaths alone in India in 2020. 

High blood pressure, excessive blood loss, unsafe abortion, obstructed labour, and infections are the most prevalent direct threats to maternal health. Most maternal fatalities can be avoided with immediate intervention by a qualified health practitioner working in a supportive setting. 

On the global agenda, ending maternal fatalities should remain a top priority. However, merely surviving pregnancy and childbirth cannot be considered a determining factor for good maternal healthcare. To reduce maternal injury and disability, it is important to increase efforts to promote the good health of both the mother and infants. 

Every pregnancy and birth is distinct. Resolving inequalities that impact health outcomes, particularly sexual and reproductive health, gender and rights, is critical to ensuring all women get respectful and high-quality maternity care. 

Various Blood Tests During Pregnancy 

To determine early symptoms of pregnancy and pregnancy symptoms week by week, doctors can conduct several blood tests. 

Complete Blood Count (CBC)
To check the early signs of pregnancy, a full blood count can be helpful. During pregnancy, a woman will have low iron levels, indicating anaemia. With this pregnancy blood test, you can check your iron levels. If the levels are too low, your doctor will suggest iron supplements. 

Rh Factor Test
The Rhesus factor or Rh factor is a protein present on the outside of red blood cells. Generally, people are Rh-positive or Rh-negative. With this pregnancy blood test, doctors check the compatibility of the pregnant woman and the foetus. If you’re Rh-negative and pregnant with a child who’s Rh-positive, your immune system may react to the incompatibility and create antibodies, which can attack the red blood cells of the foetus. To prevent it from happening, your doctor may give you a shot of immunoglobulin. 

Rubella Test
Rubella is a pregnancy blood test conducted by doctors to check if you’re protected against rubella. If you’re affected by rubella during pregnancy, it can cause serious problems to your foetus, like deafness and brain injury. To prevent this, doctors run this test. 

The Consequences of Poor Mental Health

About 22% of mothers in India suffer from clinical depression after childbirth. Suicide is a critical cause of death among pregnant and postpartum women. Psychosis is significantly less prevalent, although it can lead to suicide and, in certain situations, injure the infant. Depression causes great misery and incapacity as well as reduces the ability to respond to the needs of children. When efforts are made to treat the depression that mothers face, it can improve the well-being of the children and mothers while reducing the chances of malnutrition and diarrhoea. 

Conclusion

To reduce maternal fatalities as well as miscarriages, it is important to carry out maternal checkups before, during and after pregnancy. Different blood tests for pregnancy can detect complications (if they arise), and doctors can solve them immediately to prevent any unfortunate circumstance.