As one way of further reducing martenal mortality rates in the country, health research organisation, University of North Carolina- UNC Project has called for the need to increase more efforts and integration of issues to do with mental health and antinatal care among pregnant women in the country.
The call comes after the organisation presented results of the Periscope Study in Lilongwe on Monday.
The Periscope study, which was in its pilot phase, was aimed at finding out the fidelity, feasibility and acceptability of having further studies on the topic.
Principle Investigator in the study, Angela Bengston said the introduction of life long Anti Retroviral drugs for HIV positive pregnant women has resulted in a decrease in HIV transmission, martenal and infant mortality but the mental health of these women has been excluded which is why the study was conducted.
Bengston said issues on mental health in pregnant women who are living with HIV has shown higher levels of depression due to fewer resources in psychosocial counselling and support.
“We know that for people that are living with HIV whether or not pregnant they have problems with mental health issues such as depression therefore we conducted the study to see if further studies could help in ending this. The study has shown that we can step up the efforts and do it at a larger scale. At the end we hope that we can have routine antenatal care where we would have psychosocial counselling for these women”, she said.
In response, Dr Michael Udedi the Assistant director of Curative and medical rehabilitation responsible for mental health under the division of non communicable diseases in the ministry of health said commended UNC Project for undertaking the study.
Udedi said statistics show that indeed pregnant women who are HIV have mental health issues since being pregnant itself brings in issues to do with depression, stress and anxiety.
“The Periscope study has shown that it’s possible to integrate mental health care management and antinatal care in pregnant women. This is effective as women out there have mental issues that statistics show that 11% of women attending antinatal care pass through stress and depression among other things. We are currently providing social support and medication to those affected”, Dr Udedi said.
The Periscope study used a Friendship Bench model of counselling which is aimed at addressing common mood disorders and enables clients to help themselves.
The study was conducted in Lumbadzi, Nathenje and Mitundu health centres in Lilongwe and started in December 2019 to September last year.
