A group of clinical associates at Walter Sisulu University have dedicated their time to educating people about the risks of Sexually Transmitted Infections in pregnant women. These final year nursing students are doing a quality improvement project at Dr Malizo Mpehle memorial Hospital in Tsolo.
The zealous group is urging pregnant mothers to get tested for Sexually Transmitted infections to prevent serious complications including foetus fatalities.
“We are mainly focused on educating pregnant women on how STIs can be contracted, how to prevent STIs, and how it should be treated at a health facility. STIs can bring a lot of complications and these complications are preterm labour, foetal death, complications while giving birth and mothers could also get uterus infection after giving birth” explains Vuyo Booi.
These students began their project by first conducting research to understand how much knowledge people have on STIs.
“We first saw how much people know about STIs then we educated them and even made posters raising awareness. We made flyers, had one on one sessions with pregnant women teaching them about STIs and their risks. We investigated their knowledge on STIs through questionnaires and that is where we got to learn that people have little information about STIs and most people know nothing about STIs. That is when we educated them more about the symptoms, what to do when they notice symptoms and where they can get help.” Said Sinikeziwe Sigenu.
Sigenu added that the most common STIs in South Africa are Human Papillomavirus (HPV) whereby a person gets genital warts most people know it as ‘Cauliflower’.
According to this team infections that can occur in pregnant women can also affect a new-born baby leading to blindness and paralysis, but transmission can be prevented with proper testing. These clinical associates recommend that pregnant women get tested for HIV, Hepatitis B and Syphilis at their first prenatal visit. Testing is important because many people don’t show symptoms of those infections.
“There are many complications that could occur in mother and child during birth when the mother has untreated STIs, these include preterm labour, foetal death, infections in the mother’s womb after giving birth and many other complications. However all these risks could be prevented through practising safe sex, using condoms, early detection and treatment of the STI. Most STIs except for HIV can be cured.” said Khoza Mfanafuthi
The team explains that Sexually Transmitted Infections can only termed Sexually Transmitted Diseases when they start showing symptoms. HPV, HIV, syphilis, genital herpes, chlamydia, gonorrhoea, are some of the most common STIs in the area the team works in with HIV and syphilis being the most common ones in pregnant women. These STIs can only be contracted through not using condoms when having sex.
Sigenu also added that there are some triggers that increase women’s risks of getting these STIs.
“Some women do things that increase their risks of getting STIs, doing things such as douching whereby women use perfumes and other products to make their vaginas smell nice, having multiple sex partners also heightens their risks of getting STIs even though the direct infection comes from not using condoms.”
