adminHerald Reporter
THE Ministry of Health and Child Welfare has underscored the need to strengthen reproductive health services at all Government health institutions with special attention to adolescents.The ministry’s Deputy Director of Reproductive Health, Ms Margaret Nyandoro, said the ministry was advocating and orienting other relevant sectors to improve the existing policies that create a supportive environment for Adolescence Sexual Reproductive Health (ASRH). “We are pushing for the review and harmonisation of all reproductive health-related protocols and policies to ensure that they are sensitive to the needs of adolescents,” Ms Nyandoro said. “There is a serious need to strengthen the provision of friendly sexual and reproductive health services in local health facilities, particularly family planning to the sexually active individuals.”
According to the United Nations Population Fund, adolescent girls aged between 15 and 19 constitute a quarter of the 960 women that die as a result of pregnancy-related complications in Zimbabwe. It was important, she said, for the teenagers to be trained through counselling and education services on ASRH.
According to the latest ministry report, Eclampsia and Sepsis were the leading causes of teenage deaths associated with pregnancy.
Eclampsia is the development of seizures in a woman after having a drastic rise in blood pressure and swelling during pregnancy, according to a medical dictionary.
Online Reporter
derick.khumalo