The survivors’ wellbeing is not always guaranteed…

Mar 05, 2017 News

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By Sharmain Grainger
It’s a gift from God they say. You’re blessed they say. But exactly what do you say to those women whose blessing of conceiving and giving birth turns out to be a living hell or worse.
The reality is some of them never make it out alive, and some, although they survive, return to a life of impaired mental health [postpartum depression] which is sometimes compounded by other physical issues which can evolve to life-threatening proportions.
Imagine a perfectly normal life turning into a medical emergency practically overnight.
Exactly where in this lies the blessing and the gift?
Yes, she would’ve paved the way for life to go on for generations to come, but what quality of life will she have?
These are but a few of the searching questions that health sectors around the world may never be able to entirely answer. But these questions are asked, perhaps every day, by someone we know and love.
It is usually never easy for families to recover from a maternal casualty which many health sectors, including our own, are stilling battling to reduce.
But what about those who do survive but never really recover?
Sometimes those who develop complications of both mind and body, sometimes silently, even subconsciously, wish death upon themselves.
The chilling assertive phrase “life is so unfair” is not at all unexpected and can be aptly and easily embraced.
How does a woman recover from this? What measures are even in place to rehabilitate her to her former self?
These questions when asked seemed to stun a senior health official I spoke to recently.
It immediately dawned on me that the major goal of the health sector when it comes to maternal health is to reduce as far as possible the mortality rate, but the ensuing quality of life is in fact a minor consideration.
And tremendous effort is usually put into achieving a reduced rate of maternal deaths. In fact, the Ministry has plugged millions into measures to strive to women do not die from complications related to childbirth.
Of course there are some unavoidable situations, but, according to health officials, more medical practitioners have been trained and facilities have been constructed and/or improved to aid this process along.
Even more interesting is the fact that moves have been made to increase medical evacuations, since the Public Health Ministry has adopted an initiative that all high risk pregnancies, even those from far-flung regions must be transferred to a facility that can cater to such needs, thereby reducing the possibility of maternal mortality and morbidity.
For the year 2015, the Ministry recorded a total of 17 maternal deaths. The figure recorded last year was 12, and so far for this year the Ministry has reportedly recorded no deaths.
But the Ministry, as far as I am aware, hasn’t put nearly enough measures in place to cater to other issues women have been known to develop after childbirth.
In my humble opinion this should never be the case, especially when health, by its very definition, speaks to the wellness of the entire body.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), health is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
I recently engaged a few women who, a few months of giving birth, have certainly not returned to a complete state of health. In fact if health officials were to honestly pronounce on their respective conditions they will admit that their physical wellbeing is not intact for various reasons, all of which have been linked to them giving birth.
These have ranged from mental instability – which many have been known to hide for fear of being labelled “crazy” – and then there are sometimes other complications. Imagine a woman developing an abscess in the breast because her milk hasn’t flowed as it should and she is told surgical intervention is required. But after enduring that gruelling procedure she is told she is now predisposed to breast cancer.
One official with the mere shrug of a shoulder said of a woman who experienced just this, “Oh a lot of women go through that, she is not the first and will not be the last.”
There are even some individuals who are convinced that women allow themselves to become ill simply because of their train of thoughts and therefore their recovery could hinge on them thinking “happy thoughts”.
While the mental and physical aspects of our being are indeed interlinked, these women should not be encouraged to suppress the reality of their condition rather than have it addressed. Although it could be true that an individual’s recovery could be fast-tracked if they are in the right environment and frame of mind, sometimes there is simply no substitute for proper medical treatment and care.
And it is just this that some women are denied once they would have journeyed through a delivery, made it to the other side, and are seen as another victory in the health sector’s quest to reduced maternal mortality.
But all are not created equal! While some may have experiences that may have them ‘raring to go again’, there are others who wish they’d never tried and need a bit more help on the road to full recovery.
Moreover, focus on the possibility of the latter state of affairs should also be high on the agenda of the health sector, because we can’t expect to become the healthiest nation in the Caribbean region by overlooking some of our crucial citizens – women clinging to health after giving birth.

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