Men being principle decision makers in our society have very important roles to play in efforts to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality rate. However, our hospital setting seems to be unfriendly evidenced by very few men who attend antenatal clinic with their wives. This leaves them out of safe motherhood education.
To narrate the whole story, men are expected to shoulder the responsibility to make sure that before a woman gets pregnant, the family should be ready with the following to mention but a few:
The decision maker to the wife’s family and the man as a father will not go away up to the time when the woman will deliver, offering support and care. This is to evade the situation whereby a woman delivers at home or on the way delayed by waiting for the husband to come and okay her going to the hospital. They should decide where the woman will deliver, prepare transport save enough money in case of emergency. He should also see that there is enough food to cater for the family’s nutritional needs; since the woman will need nutritious food for successful gestation period and puerperium.
They then should decide where they can get blood in case need be and prepare to go for HIV, VDRL, Hb tests beforehand. They should also discuss the family planning method they will use after delivery and their reproductive goals.
For this to materialize let us find men where they are and teach them. In this regard I call upon Policy Makers and all of us to make policies that ensure men are empowered to be in the forefront in this matter, and we all take pregnancy issues our issues too respectively.
To find men, we can forget their attending the clinics but use HAS’s, Peer Educators, Marriage Counselors, teachers, print and electronic media to teach the community about safe motherhood and reproductive goals. Emphasis should be if the family is unable to meet the above conditions to wait when they will be ready.
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