Binge drinking in pregnancy hurts child’s mental health

A new study has revealed that binge drinking during pregnancy can negatively affect mental health of child aged 11 and deteriorates his school performance.

Binge drinking in pregnancy hurts child's mental health

The study at University of Bristol showed that this was the case even after a number of other lifestyle and social factors were taken into account, including the mother’s own mental health, whether she smoked tobacco, used cannabis or other drugs during the pregnancy, her age, her education, and how many other children she had.

This builds on earlier research on the same children that found a link between binge drinking in pregnancy and their mental health when aged four and seven, suggesting that problems could persist as a child got older.

Lead author Kapil Sayal said that women who are pregnant or who are planning to become pregnant should be aware of the possible risks associated with episodes of heavier drinking during pregnancy, even if this only occurs on an occasional basis.

Sayal added that the consumption of four or more drinks in a day might increase the risk for hyperactivity and inattention problems and lower academic attainment even if daily average levels of alcohol consumption during pregnancy are low.

Sayal continued that the study highlighted the need for clear policy messages about patterns of alcohol consumption during pregnancy, whereby women who chose to drink occasionally should avoid having several drinks in a day.

The study is published in the journal European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Source: zee news


Morning Sickness Relief: Eating With Morning Sickness

Morning sickness is the nauseated feeling you experience in your first trimester. It usually starts out in the morning and wears off as you become active throughout your day. This is a good place to start when looking for morning sickness relief. Not all morning sickness remedies will work for you, but these are just a few remedies and comforts that have helped other women get through their days

In the Morning:

Allow yourself plenty of time to get out of bed. If you usually get up at 6:00 a.m. set your alarm for 5:00 a.m. It is a good idea to keep a stash of crackers or dry cereal by your bed, so you can put something in your stomach as soon as you wake up. Get out of bed slowly as you start your day.

During the Day:

Eat small meals throughout the day to avoid getting too full or too hungry. Progesterone slows the speed of food passing through your digestive tract. To further prevent your stomach from getting too full or too empty, you should drink fluids a 1/2 hour before or after a meal, but not with your meals. But DO drink fluids throughout the day to avoid dehydration.

Get plenty of rest when you can. This is especially important if you have to get up early in the morning. But DON’T take a nap right after a meal. This can cause nausea to be worse.

Avoid foods or smells that make your nausea worse, and avoid being in warm places, which can increase your nausea.

In the Evening:

For dinner avoid spicy, greasy foods. Prepare things that are bland and do not have a strong odor. You may have to avoid cooking for the first trimester.

Most importantly, go to bed early! You need your rest to have the energy to get up early and do it all over again. If you happen to wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, try to eat something from your bedside stash!

Morning Sickness Relief: Suggested Meals

  • Cold foods (sandwiches, raw vegetables, salad when properly prepared to prevent listeria)
  • Bland foods (chicken soup, broth, plain baked potato)
  • Plain vegetables or fruits
  • Keep meals small, but eat as frequently as you need

Morning Sickness Relief: Suggested Snacks To Eat

  • Lemons (eat them, suck on them, sniff them)
  • Ginger (ginger ale soda, ginger tea, ginger jam on toast, ginger snaps)
  • Peppermint tea
  • Crackers
  • Jell-O
  • Flavored popsicles
  • Pretzels

Morning Sickness Relief: Treatments & Supplements

Preggie Pops: flavored lollipops in flavors known to reduce nausea. (Available flavors include: ginger, mint, lavender, sour raspberry, sour lemon, and sour tangerine)

A natural way to ease nausea

  • Drug free and doctor recommended
  • Great for labor
  • Alleviates dry mouth
  • Quick energy boost
  • Sea Bands: wristbands that use acupressure pulse points to fight nausea.

For all forms of nausea – including morning sickness
No drugs, no side effects
Used by doctors and hospitals
The only clinically tested wristband
One size fits all
Relief Band Device: device that can be worn continuously for relief of mild to moderate nausea and vomiting associated with pregnancy.

Vitamin B6: Taking Vitamin B6 (50 mg) daily has been shown to help with pregnancy-induced nausea.

Talk with your health care provider about any supplements and treatments for morning sickness. If morning sickness is so severe that you are constantly throwing up and not keeping anything down, consult with your health care provider about the possibility of having hyperemesis gravidarum.

Source: American Pregnancy


Food To Avoid During Pregnancy

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Eating well balanced meals is important at all times, but it is even more essential when you are pregnant. There are essential nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that your developing baby needs. Most foods are safe; however, there are some foods that you should avoid during pregnancy.

Raw Meat: Uncooked seafood and rare or undercooked beef or poultry should be avoided because of the risk of contamination with coliform bacteria, toxoplasmosis, and salmonella.

Deli Meat: Deli meats have been known to be contaminated with listeria, which can cause miscarriage. Listeria has the ability to cross the placenta and may infect the baby leading to infection or blood poisoning, which may be life-threatening. If you are pregnant and you are considering eating deli meats, make certain that you reheat the meat until it is steaming .

Fish with Mercury: Fish that contain high levels of mercury should be avoided. Mercury consumed during pregnancy has been linked to developmental delays and brain damage. A sample of these types of fish include: shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish. Canned, chunk light tuna generally has a lower amount of mercury than other tuna, but still should only be eaten in moderation. Certain types of fish used in sushi should also be avoided due to high levels of mercury. Please see Mercury in Fish for specific types of fish and further information on how to calculate mercury levels.

Smoked Seafood -Refrigerated, smoked seafood often labeled as lox, nova style, kippered, or jerky should be avoided because it could be contaminated with Listeria. (These are safe to eat when they are in an ingredient in a meal that has been cooked, like a casserole.) This type of fish is often found in the deli section of your grocery store. Canned or shelf-safe smoked seafood is usually OK to eat.

Fish Exposed to Industrial Pollutants: Avoid fish from contaminated lakes and rivers that may be exposed to high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls. This is primarily for those who fish in local lakes and streams. These fish include: bluefish, striped bass, salmon, pike, trout, and walleye. Contact the local health department or Environmental Protection Agency to determine which fish are safe to eat in your area. Remember, this is regarding fish caught in local waters and not fish from your local grocery store.

Raw Shellfish: The majority of seafood-borne illness is caused by undercooked shellfish, which include oysters, clams, and mussels. Cooking helps prevent some types of infection, but it does not prevent the algae-related infections that are associated with red tides. Raw shellfish pose a concern for everybody, and they should be avoided altogether during pregnancy.

Raw Eggs: Raw eggs or any foods that contain raw eggs should be avoided because of the potential exposure to salmonella. Some homemade Caesar dressings, mayonnaise, homemade ice cream or custards, and Hollandaise sauces may be made with raw eggs.

If the recipe is cooked at some point, this will reduce the exposure to salmonella. Commercially manufactured ice cream, dressings, and eggnog are made with pasteurized eggs and do not increase the risk of salmonella. Restaurants should be using pasteurized eggs in any recipe that is made with raw eggs, such as Hollandaise sauce or dressings.

Soft Cheeses: Imported soft cheeses may contain bacteria called Listeria, which can cause miscarriage. Listeria has the ability to cross the placenta and may infect the baby leading to infection or blood poisoning, which can be life-threatening. You would need to avoid soft cheeses such as: Brie, Camembert, Roquefort, Feta, Gorgonzola and Mexican style cheeses that include queso blanco and queso fresco, unless they clearly state that they are made from pasteurized milk. All soft non-imported cheeses made with pasteurized milk are safe to eat.

Un pasteurized Milk: Un pasteurized milk may contain a bacteria called listeria, which can cause miscarriage. Listeria has the ability to cross the placenta and may infect the baby leading to infection or blood poisoning, which can be life-threatening. Make sure that any milk you drink is pasteurized.

Pate: Refrigerated pate or meat spreads should be avoided because they may contain the bacteria listeria. Canned pate, or shelf-safe meat spreads can be eaten.

Caffeine: Although most studies show that caffeine intake in moderation is OK, there are others that show that caffeine intake may be related to miscarriages. Avoid caffeine during the first trimester to reduce the likelihood of a miscarriage.

As a general rule, caffeine should be limited to fewer than 200 mg per day during pregnancy. Caffeine is a diuretic, which means it helps eliminate fluids from the body. This can result in water and calcium loss. It is important that you are drinking plenty of water, juice, and milk rather than caffeinated beverages. Some research shows that large amounts of caffeine are associated with miscarriage, premature birth, low birth weight, and withdrawal symptoms in infants. The safest thing is to refrain from consuming caffeine.

Alcohol: There is NO amount of alcohol that is known to be safe during pregnancy, and therefore alcohol should be avoided during pregnancy. Prenatal exposure to alcohol can interfere with the healthy development of the baby. Depending on the amount, timing, and pattern of use, alcohol consumption during pregnancy can lead to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or other developmental disorders. If you consumed alcohol before you knew you were pregnant, stop drinking now. You should continue to avoid alcohol during breastfeeding. Exposure of alcohol to an infant poses harmful risks, and alcohol does reach the baby during breastfeeding.

Unwashed Vegetables: Yes, vegetables are safe to eat, so you still need to eat them. However, it is essential to make sure they are washed to avoid potential exposure to toxoplasmosis.

Source: American pregnancy


Lower IQ in kids linked to mom’s exposure to flame retardants in pregnancy

Lower IQ in kids linked to mom's exposure to flame retardants in pregnancy

Debates over the toxicity of chemicals like lead and mercury have long been extinguished, but mounting research into flame retardant has ignited a deeper probe of man-made chemicals.

Learning deficits and decreased IQ in children has been linked to synthetic chemicals once commonly used in household items to prevent fire, according to a new study out of British Columbia’s Simon Fraser University.

The study, published online Wednesday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, found a 4.5 drop in IQ and greater hyperactivity in five-year-olds was associated with their mother’s exposure to flame retardants during early pregnancy and after the babies were born.
The research joins five other international studies highlighting the potential dangers of polybrominated diphenyl ethers, known as PDBEs, which were once widely used in products like couches, carpets and car seats.

“Now we’ve seen this pattern of toxicity with low level environmental chemicals — lead, mercury, now fire retardants — let’s not do it again,” said SFU health sciences Prof. Bruce Lanphear, one of the study’s authors.

“Let’s set a regulatory framework in place to make sure these products, these chemicals, are safe before they’re marketed to children and pregnant women.”

The study started 10 years ago as realization donned that chemical compounds throughout the consumer market had little research answering questions about their safety. The researchers tested blood, urine and hair samples of 309 women and their children in Cincinnati, Ohio, starting from 16 weeks of pregnancy and until their children were five.

In 2004, manufacturers in the U.S. and Canada began voluntarily withdrawing PBDEs from their formulas, while further concerns over harmful effects on wildlife and mammals prompted a United Nations body to ban two of three commercial PBDEs in 2009.

Two problems, however, still persist. Many household goods produced over the past three decades remain in homes and offices with potential to leach toxins, while the industry is replacing the old synthetics with new without accompanying research.

“It’s not simply about the flame retardants,” Lanphear said. “If we replace them with a chemical that hasn’t been sufficiently studied and it turns out to be toxic, have we really solved the problem?”

But as the trend away from chemicals continues to grow in popularity, especially on the West Coast, the industry points out that safety was the original intention behind their inclusion in manufactured products.

“Flame retardants currently in commerce help save lives and provide an important layer of fire protection to families,” said Bryan Goodman, with the North American Flame Retardant Alliance, based in Washington, D.C.
He said in a statement that flame retardants, like all chemicals, are subject to review by the Environment Protection Agency and other regulatory agencies in the United States and around the world.

“It is still important to view the study with caution and consider the limitations of the research conducted when evaluating its conclusions,” he added.

Precaution is warranted, Lanphear said. Policy-makers should start by assuming chemicals have the potential to be toxic, and move to implement a system that scientifically examines their potential for consequence before manufacturer’s clearance, he advised.

In the short-term, expectant mothers and parents would be prudent to toss old furniture and tear up carpets in favour of wood surfaces that can easily be cleaned, he said. At least one new chemical is currently being used in the market to safeguard against flames, he noted.

The federal government has regulations in place aimed at insulating the country’s environment from risks associated with PBDEs, preventing their manufacture and restricting their use in Canada.

“These actions … will contribute to ensuring that the Canadian environment is protected and that Canadians’ exposure to these substances is minimized,” reads a statement on Environment Canada’s website.

Source: Ctv news


Exercise During Pregnancy Benefits Mom—And Baby, Too

 

Exercise During Pregnancy Benefits Mom—And Baby, Too
When Linda May went in to see her obstetrician during her first pregnancy, he told her she probably shouldn’t jump, run, or even walk. But May, an exercise physiologist who studies pregnant women and their babies, knew a thing or two about the positive ways that being active can help a mom-to-be’s health. Women who exercise with baby on board have been known to have, among other things, lower risks of gestational diabetes and pregnancy-induced high blood pressure than those who don’t.

Since then, May and other researchers have discovered even more ways that prenatal exercise benefits not only an expectant mother, but her growing baby, too—sometimes for years into the future—as attendees learned at last week’s Experimental Biology 2014 meeting in San Diego.

Past Thinking

Decades ago, many more doctors gave similar advice to May’s obstetrician. Pregnancy was thought to be almost like an illness, a time when women needed to rest to protect themselves and their babies. In 1985, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists came out with their first set of guidelines for exercise during pregnancy—guidelines, now considered conservative, that included suggestions like keeping strenuous activities to 15 minutes or less.

Since then, research has turned that idea on its head. Exercise is now thought to be—for most women with healthy pregnancies—a boon for the mother’s health, and for the baby she carries as well.  Researchers are now starting to look even more closely at how exercise can influence a baby’s health in the womb and how these effects might translate into protection from future health problems.

Heart Health

It’s been known that those who exercise—including pregnant women—tend to have lower resting heart rates than those who don’t. Lower heart rates can be a sign of an efficient heart; high heart rates have been linked to greater risk of cardiovascular disease. May, now at East Carolina University in North Carolina, has long been interested whether benefits like this extended to baby.  In a 2010 study, she and her colleagues collected a group of 26 pregnant women who reported that they’d been exercising three times a week for more than 30 minutes per session.  When researchers brought the moms into the lab at 36 weeks, they found that the babies in their bellies, too, had lower heart rates than those carried by the moms they studied who weren’t regular exercisers.

In another study, presented at last week’s conference, May recruited 60 women at 13 weeks of pregnancy and brought them into the gym three times a week for either aerobic or mixed aerobic and weight training exercise. A control group of women came in to stretch and chat with researchers, keeping their heart rates low.

At 34 weeks—about six weeks before the babies’ due dates—the researchers checked in with the hearts within the wombs. Whether their moms were pumping iron or spinning, the babies in the bellies of exercising moms played along—their heart rates were lower and more variable, another sign of heart health, and pumped more blood with each beat than the tiny hearts inside moms in the control group.

The results indicate that exercise during pregnancy, far from harming the fetus, can be incredibly beneficial for both mom and baby. And timing matters: exercise during pregnancy, as opposed to pre-pregnancy fitness, seems to be doing something extra-special, May says. In this most recent study, about half of the group hadn’t exercised previously, and still saw similar effects on their babies’ hearts. In some of May’s past work, she collected data on moms’ pre-pregnancy body mass index and their resting heart rates, ages, and how much weight they gained in pregnancy. But these things didn’t explain the link between the fetus’s heart health and the exercise done in pregnancy.

Benefits at Birth, and Beyond

Such benefits to the heart may last into a child’s early life. Earlier this year, May and colleagues found that month-old infants still had higher heart rate variability if they had exercised along with their moms in utero. Another set of results from May’s group, not yet published, suggests that kids up to six years old still carry some of these early workouts with them: youngsters whose moms exercised while pregnant have higher “ejection fractions,” which indicates their hearts are pumping blood more efficiently.

As for what types of exercise bring the most benefit, May has found that aerobic exercise is great for the mom—lowering her heart rate and helping her gain less fat—but a mix of aerobics and strength training may be even better for the baby, although it’s not yet clear why, she says.

Growing hearts might be one of many things helped by an active mom. In his lab at the University of Kentucky, Kevin Pearson is looking at the connection between exercise and skin cancer in mice. He’s seen that mice that run during pregnancy have offspring that develop fewer skin tumors, later in life—a small but significant protective effect that he calls “an exciting first step.” Wei Zheng, a graduate student at Indiana’s Purdue University, and her colleagues found that baby rats had a 58 percent lower incidence of breast tumors if their mothers exercised.

Helping Moms Get Moving

Even with greater options at hand—from “Fit Pregnancy” magazine to prenatal yoga DVDs—many pregnant women aren’t exercising, in some cases because of lingering fear about harming their growing babies. Studies report that only about 10 to 30 percent of pregnant women are following recommended exercise guidelines—for healthy women, at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise most, if not all, days, according to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (Of course, some women can’t safely exercise during part or all of their pregnancy, and active women should watch out for warning signs while exercising, such as bleeding or contractions.)

“It’s really important to start putting focus on how we can convey this message to pregnant women, get them to talk to their healthcare providers about exercise during their pregnancy, and get exercising,” says Amy McKenzie, a graduate student at the University of Connecticut who presented a study about pregnant women’s exercise habits at the conference.

Still, moms who aren’t able to exercise shouldn’t add, on top of other worries, the concern that their babies’ hearts won’t be healthy. May says that, instead, moms-to-be who can and do exercise—even a little bit—may be offering an added shield for their babies against later-in-life problems, which could be particularly important for those with a family history of heart disease.

Her next step is to analyze how an exercising mom might help shape her baby’s body composition. She’s following up on other studies that suggest babies born to exercising moms have lower body fat—benefits that can last into childhood.  If that’s the case, exercise during pregnancy could be able to shape two major health problems, even before a baby is born. “Heart disease and childhood obesity,” she says. “If we can affect those two things, the public health benefit is huge.”

Source: discover magazine


Home Remedies for Nausea and Vomiting During Pregnancy

Home-remedies-to-stop-vomiting-during-pregnancy

 

 

Nausea is a sensation of discomfort in the stomach. It has lots of possible causes like stomach infection, weakness, depression, anxiety etc. It is common in pregnant women. Nausea sometimes precedes vomiting. But it is a part of pregnancy. It is believed to be normal. And it can be controlled from getting severe. There are some simple home remedies which can help control the discomfort.

# Sucking a lime or peppermint sweet :- These give a feeling of relaxation to your mind and calm you down.

# Sipping iced cold tea

# Drinking herbal tea such as light tulsi/mint tea without sugar or milk

# Strong ginger flavour or powdered ginger

# Eat some protein snack before retiring to bed at night

# Put one teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in a cup of lukewarm water and drink in the morning on an empty stomach.

# Eat Saunf or aniseed

Source: the med guru


Pregnant U.K. woman is dead after a doctor removed the wrong organ

pregnant woman

A pregnant U.K. woman is dead after a doctor removed the wrong organ during a routine surgery.

Maria De Jesus, 32, was admitted into the hospital. She was 21 weeks pregnant with her fourth child and suffering from abdominal pains.

It reports her doctor, Yahya Al-Abed, brought her into surgery to remove her appendix, but accidentally removed her ovary. He had only been working at the hospital for three weeks and had little experience operating on pregnant women.

De Jesus died in London just 19 days later after having a miscarriage. Al-Abed admits to the mistake, but says there was no misconduct. His senior consultant Dr. Coker is also in hot water.

Dr. Coker was supposed to oversee the surgery, but instead he reportedly told Al-Abed he would ‘be around during the procedure but went home during it.

Source: Aol


Pregnant women with high BP risk preterm delivery and low birth weight

Researchers have said that pregnant women with chronic hypertension (high blood pressure) are highly likely to suffer from adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preterm delivery, low birth weight and neonatal death.

Chronic hypertension complicates between 1-5 per cent of pregnancies, and the problem may be increasing because of changes in the antenatal population.

Researchers from King’s College London carried out a study to assess the strength of evidence linking chronic hypertension with poor pregnancy outcomes. They combined data from studies from 55 studies done in 25 countries.

The researchers looked at the following outcomes: preterm delivery (delivery before 37 weeks’ gestation); low birth weight (below 2500g); perinatal death (fetal death after 20 weeks’ gestation including stillbirth and neonatal death up to one month) and admission to neonatal intensive care or special care baby units.

The relative risk of pre-eclampsia (a condition in pregnancy characterised by high blood pressure) in women with chronic hypertension was on average nearly eight times higher than pre-eclampsia in non-hypertensive women. All adverse neonatal outcomes were at least twice as likely to occur, compared with the general population.

The researchers conclude that “chronic hypertension is associated with a high incidence of adverse pregnancy outcomes compared with a general population”.

The study has been published in the British Medical journal

Source: The siasat daily


Infant hair reveals life inside the womb

Hairs can reveal a lot, from your personality to even drug abuse or hormonal changes. Now, add foetus growth in the womb to the hair list.

In a thrilling discovery, a team of researchers including an Indian-origin scientist have found that hair can also reveal the womb environment in which an infant was formed.

They used infant hair to examine the hormonal environment to which the foetus was exposed during development – promising to unleash a wealth of new information in the fields of neonatology, psychology social science to neurology.

“We had this ‘Aha!’ realisation that we could use hair in newborns, because it starts growing one to two months before birth,” said Christopher Coe, director of the Harlow centre for biological psychology at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“The findings raise questions about everything from the significance of birth order to stereotypical ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ behaviours in children,” Amita Kapoor, an assistant researcher at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Centre, noted.

Additionally, what happens to a developing foetus while in the womb may impact its risk for chronic disease later in life, Kapoor added.

According to researchers, hair closest to the scalp reveals the most recent information but moving down the shaft effectively transits an individual’s hormonal timeline.

For the study, researchers took small samples of hair from mother rhesus monkeys and their infants using common hair clippers. The hair was cleaned and pulverised into a fine powder using a high-speed grinder.

The hormonal signature was then read using a new mass spectrometry method. They found that cortisone, an inactive form of stress hormone cortisol, was higher in young mothers and in their babies than in hair of the older mothers and their infants.

Babies born to young mothers also had higher levels of estrone (a form of estrogen) and testosterone in their hair than did babies born to older mothers.

“Type 2 diabetes, metabolic disease, coronary artery disease and psychiatric disorders – there may be a whole host of long-term
repercussions of stress in utero,” Kapoor emphasised.  The study appeared in the journal Pediatric Research.
Source: business standard

 


Number of Unsafe Abortions in Kenya ‘Worrying’

Abortion is medically defined as the expulsion of a pregnancy before viability whether spontaneous or induced.

In Kenya, the new Constitution terms abortion as illegal. However, in circumstances where the pregnancy presents danger to the woman’s mental or physical health then she has the right to access safe and legal abortion.

According to Andrew Wamalwa, a health director with the Ministry of Health, Kenya records 465,000 unsafe abortions annually and this contributes to 20 percent of the total maternal deaths.

He further observed that community attitudes contribute to the alarmingly high numbers of unsafe abortions.

“Lack of knowledge, myths and misconceptions combined with health provider attitudes are partly to blame for this high numbers of unsafe abortions.”

“Interestingly, the women who come in for post abortion care or have procured an abortion are not just the marginalised or poor as has been the stereotype.”

“This calls for leadership right at the community level within the current legal and policy framework. Educate young girls how to manage crisis pregnancy safely, show them that there are options like adoption as opposed to harshly judging them which only pushes them to undertaking back street abortions.”

Wamalwa added that the ministry is on a campaign to increase access to effective family planning to women that are of reproductive age.

“More than 70 percent of the women that seek post abortion care were not using a method of contraception prior to them getting pregnant,” he said

He also advised on safe abortion methods that are available to the woman in a case where her life is in danger.

“A woman has various options of the abortion methods; first there is the vacuum aspiration which is a manual suction to remove the contents of the uterus. This method can only be done at three or less months of pregnancy by a trained medic. If done safely then there are no complications and 98 percent success rate.”

“The second method is referred to as medical abortion and it is performed using pills. A trained doctor administers pills which causes the uterus to shrink and expel the pregnancy. This method has a few side effects like abdominal cramps and has a 83 to 97 percent success rate,” he explained.

Vania Kibui a policy advisor at IPAS Africa Alliance disclosed that under Article 43 (1A) of the new Constitution, every person has the right to the highest attainable standard of health care services including reproductive health.

She further elaborates on Article 43 (2) which says that a person shall not be denied emergency medical treatment.

“This means that one has a right to access contraceptives after a rape incident even in a private facility which includes those operated by churches that have traditionally refused to give those services,” she explained.

Kibui however raised concern in regard to Article 26 (4) which allows for safe abortion saying,” the article demands that abortions can only be performed by trained medical practitioners meaning that women that live in poor rural communities have no such services will have to procure an abortion from a clinical officer or nurse which has serious potentially fatal repercussions for the poor women,” she added.

Source: All africa