The story of Fatuma: How she almost lost her life and the importance of antenatal care

A 35 year old Berta woman named Fatuma* was laying on a bed in the corner of the maternal health ward at the hospital taking breaths in short gasps while an older female relative sat in the bed with her, holding her.

More female relatives sat all around the bed, one with a black niqab covering her face with only worried eyes showing while others simply had colourful scarves draped over their heads.

Came in the doctor in charge, Dr. Getachew- the gynecologist specialist – one of two specialists at the hospital. He told us that Fatuma had come in 5 months pregnant with her fifth child with a severe case of pre-eclampsia.

Eclampsia is a condition of seizures during late pregnancy which poses serious risks and even possibly death to the mother and child and pre-eclampsia is the warning signs leading up to eclampsia.

It is marked by high blood pressure and high level of protein in their urine. Unfortunately, Fatuma’s lost the baby and her health continued to spiral down, deteriorating before the eyes of her family and the medical staff.

She suffered a lot of blood loss after the miscarriage and developed a respiratory infection that left her with a weak, gasping breath and her airways constantly filling with fluid.

Dr. Getachew said that she would have been a candidate for an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) but they did not have one at the hospital she had visited. They took her into surgery but the mechanized ventilation unit was not working so they had to ventilate by hand.

 “We are hopeless,” The doctor lamented over the lack of medical resources. “The staff had tried their hardest with limited facilities.” A nurse was assigned to be with Fatuma through her most critical time.

 Luckily, when we saw her in the morning, she seemed to be getting better and was able to talk a bit. However the doctor said, “This was a near miss and had survived by chance only.”

Fatuma had a history of hypertension but had not gotten any follow-up during her pregnancy and was in fact not on any medication for her condition.

She had four children at home, a village about 2 hours away from a proper medical assistance. In her case, it was not a matter of money really since her husband is a relatively well to do merchant.

 “Her husband is a good person,” Dr Getachew told us how the husband was very cooperative and bought every medicine the doctor had recommended.

All this time he had been anxiously sitting outside on a mat set up under a mango tree. According to the doctor there is a lack of education and awareness on pre-natal care.

If the pregnancy seems to be going fine and she is an experienced mother, it may appear like there are no problems. However, when the condition gets bad enough to warrant a trip to the hospital, it can sometimes be too late.

“If she had followed up with her chronic hypertension and pregnancy care, it would not have gotten so far. She arrived in very rough shape,” The doctor said.

Ideally, components of antenatal care includes iron supplements, intestinal parasite drugs, measuring blood pressure, blood and urine sample taken and informing any signs of pregnancy complications.

If Fatuma had gone to a single antenatal care check-up, she may have been able to avoid this whole series of unfortunate events.

Meeting Fatuma and hearing her story really brought home the issues of health education and promotion. It made it so very real in a raw and heartbreaking way the risks that can happen if preventative measures are not taken and the immense potential impact on maternal and infant health getting checked up can have.