Raising awareness about prenatal screening

(Baonghean) -Every year, Nghe An has about more than 50,000 children born, OF WHICH 1.5 - 3% of newborns have congenital genetic defects. One of the important solutions to minimize these harmful effects is prenatal and newborn screening...

A recent survey by the population sector shows that our province currently has nearly 13,000 children with disabilities (accounting for 1.6% of the total number of children aged 0-16) and on average, about 850 children with congenital disabilities are born each year (accounting for 1.9% of the total number of children born each year) and there are hundreds of children with disabilities due to other causes. This is a huge challenge for sectors, levels, and families in ensuring that children develop normally in terms of physical and mental health as well as their ability to learn and integrate into the community, increasing the burden on families and society, affecting population quality.

Due to the lack of a prenatal screening center, the detection of congenital malformations in our province has been difficult in recent years. In fact, only 35.81% of pregnant mothers have undergone ultrasound and regular pregnancy check-ups. The rest have skipped the very important screening period for early intervention and detection of fetal malformations. Meanwhile, some diseases, if detected and treated early in the fetal and neonatal stages, can help children develop normally or avoid serious physical and mental consequences. Intervention and treatment of diseases in the fetal and neonatal stages is a positive direction to reduce the rate of disabled and mentally retarded people in the population.

Pregnancy check-up for pregnant women at the Provincial Center for Reproductive Health Care. Photo: Tu Thanh

With the goal of having 15% of pregnant women screened before birth and 30% of newborns screened by the end of 2015, since 2011, the Project "Improving population quality through propaganda, mobilization, early detection and intervention of fetal and neonatal malformations and diseases" has been piloted in 30 communes in 5 districts of Hung Nguyen, Dien Chau, Yen Thanh, Nghi Loc and Cua Lo Town.

In Nghi Loc district, right from the beginning of this project, the Center for Population - Family Planning has had many communication activities such as propaganda through mass media, organizing training, seminars, direct consultation for pregnant women, mothers and related subjects participating in prenatal and newborn screening. In this activity, Mr. Pham Ngoc Khanh - Deputy Director of the center said that the most difficult thing is to persuade families to take blood from the heel to conduct tests for their children, because: "They understand what they say, but it is not easy to persuade them to agree because every family feels sorry for their children, loves their children, and is afraid that their children are too young. Meanwhile, according to regulations, children born within 24 hours must have their blood taken immediately, each time taking three drops right on the child's heel."

Coming to the Obstetrics Department, Nghi Loc District General Hospital, directly listening to the doctors and midwives consulting the families of pregnant women, I realized that this job is not simple at all. In many cases, it took nearly 30 minutes to convince the pregnant women, but then met with opposition from the elderly. To gain everyone's trust, Ms. Dang Thi Hoi - a midwife - had to use her own child's case to convince everyone. With such perseverance, in the first 6 months of 2013, they were able to take blood samples from 300 newborns (accounting for half of the total number of babies born). Doctor Nguyen Thi Thu Ha - Deputy Head of Obstetrics Department also joked: "Getting a family to agree is better than a difficult delivery".

The implementation process at commune health stations and hospitals also showed some other difficulties such as: Because the area from the health station to the post office in some districts is quite far, while the requirement is to send samples to the Prenatal Screening Center and the Central Maternity Hospital after 24 hours, many medical facilities are not enthusiastic about taking and sending samples; some places take blood but only send it to the post office every few days, so the accuracy is not high. Some localities implementing the model have not paid due attention to communication work, many pregnant women have not had full access to information on prenatal and newborn screening...

Of the 2,760 blood samples sent to the Prenatal Screening Center, Central Obstetrics Hospital, there were 30 samples with G6PD deficiency that needed timely monitoring and treatment (G6PD deficiency can cause jaundice complications, leading to brain diseases that can cause death, or neurological complications, mental and motor retardation)...; there were 5,301 ultrasound cases, of which 89 cases of pathology were detected, 80 pregnancies were terminated, and 9 cases were transferred for monitoring and treatment.

From that, it can be seen that prenatal and newborn screening is extremely important. Because of that, since 2013, instead of only implementing in 5 districts and towns, our province has decided to implement this project in all 21 districts, towns and cities. This is really a good opportunity for mothers and newborns to minimize the possible malformations that may occur during pregnancy and when the child is born. The important thing now is to promote propaganda, increase advocacy, and provide advice so that everyone understands and considers this as one of the normal things to do to have a healthy child.

My Ha