Understanding Stillbirth from the Medical Point of View
Growing up, I was made to understand some facts and theories about life. Some was tamed to be so spiritual and some was tamed to be natural occurrence. If there is actually one major fact I grew up understanding, it is the fact that stillbirth is a spiritual occurrence. Especially in a country like Nigeria whereby situations like stillbirths can really be heartbreaking not only for the intending mother but also for the family that the situation happens to.
According to societal definition of stillbirth, it means when a baby died at the point of giving birth or probably in the labour period. But from the medical stand of view, from my research I carried out, I discovered it is beyond that. It can be as a result of a baby dieing in the womb, Major either before the baby is been delivered or after the baby has been delivered.
Most of the time, people always misinterprete miscarriage as stillbirth and vice versa. They are two different things entirely actually I must confess. The mistake a lot of people make that made them to have stillbirth is that they always understand it from the aspect of spiritual view alone which is not always true. When understood from the medical view, it properly position you to be more aware and knows what you should do right and what you should do help for quick intervention. The truth is a lot of stillbirth that happens to people is because they were not medically enlighten if not it will have been prevented.
Talking about what actually causes StillBirth, there are a whole lot of factors. In fact recently , it has been proven one of the major causes of stillbirth is the placenta. Most of the times when the placenta detaches from the baby when it is not yet time, it can affect the baby to the point of causing the baby death.
Not only that, there are also factors like high blood pressure which the mother might be experiencing can also lead to the death of the baby in the womb. And that is why it is always advisable that as a woman carrying a baby, you should not stress yourself too much.
I am talking about stress in every aspect, emotionally, mentally, physically and lots more. Then lastly, issues like infections can leads to stillbirth. I am talking about infections like malaria that we often overlooked, syphilis and many more. All these infections entering the body of the pregnant woman can affect both the mother and the baby. In fact most of the time, it affects the baby the most because the baby does not yet have a strong immune system as compared to the mother to resist the infection.
I really think our society needs to pay attention to stillbirth from the medical point of view much more than the spiritual point of view at times. In fact every pregnant woman should understand that they should take their antenatal period so serious because it goes a long way to determine the health state of the baby and generally their safe delivery. Even though StillBirth is a serious medical issue that is affecting a lot of people in our society, with the right awareness and knowledge, I believe we can manage it effectively instead of always concluding that it is spiritual.