What happens at pregnancy counselling?
Pregnancy Counseling will enable you to have the time to discuss your thoughts and explore your feelings about all options available to you. You can expect that services are unbiased and can support you and give you accurate information so that you can make a decision you feel comfortable with.
The choices that a trained professional counsellor can talk about with you include:
- Continuing with your pregnancy and parenting
- Continuing with your pregnancy and choosing adoption or fostering
- Having an abortion (termination of pregnancy)
Counsellors will keep your discussions private and confidential. It is their role to provide you with information and support, in a non-judgmental way, no matter what decision you make. If you go to a pregnancy counselling service that is funded by the government, your pregnancy counsellor will discuss all of your options with you to make your own decision
Adoption
Deciding to have your baby adopted is an important and permanent decision. Adoption is the legal process that happens when a woman and a man relinquishes their baby to be raised by adoptive parents.
Care during pregnancy and preparation for child birth
- Birth preparedness/micro birth plan – including place of delivery and the presence of an attendant at the time of the delivery.
- Advantages of institutional deliveries and risks involved in home deliveries.
- Signs of labor and danger signs of obstetric complications.
- Complication readiness – recognizing danger signs during pregnancy, labor and after delivery/abortion
- Importance of seeking Ante Natal Check-ups and Post Natal Check-ups
- Care during Medical Termination of Pregnancy
- Information on sex during pregnancy.
- Promoting family planning.
- Malaria prophylaxis and treatment
- Advise on diet (nutrition) and rest.
- Advice to eat more than her normal diet throughout the pregnancy – a pregnant woman needs about 300 kcal extra per day, over and above her usual diet, and 500 kcal extra in the post-partum period.
- Importance of a high protein diet, including items such as black gram, groundnuts, ragi, whole grains, milk, eggs, meat and nuts or any other locally available food items for anemic women.
- Intake of plenty of fruits and vegetables containing vitamin C (e.g. mango, guava, orange and sweet lime), as these enhance the absorption of iron.
- Avoid taking tea or coffee within an hour after a meal
- Rich fiber diet to avoid constipation.
- Sleep for eight hours at night and rest for another two hours during the day and refrain from doing heavy work, especially lifting heavy weights
- Refrain from taking alcohol, tobacco in any form or addictive drugs such as opium derivatives during pregnancy
- Refrain any medication unless prescribed by a qualified health practitioner.
- Special categories of women who require additional nutrition during pregnancy include the following:
- Women who are underweight (less than 45 kg)
- Women who have an increased level of physical activity, above the usual levels, during pregnancy
- Adolescent girls who are pregnant
- Those who become pregnant within two years of the previous delivery
- Those with multiple pregnancy
- Women who are HIV positive.