A healthy pregnancy for Natasha!

Natasha is only 20 years old but she just found out that she is pregnant with her fourth child. As is typical in her community, Natasha married her husband when she was only 12 years old, and now has three children ranging  from 18 months to 6 years. As neither she nor her husband have an education beyond the primary school level and the entire family relies on her husband’s meager earnings of 2,000 rupees ($45) per month as a part-time caddy at a nearby golf course, each additional child is becoming more difficult for the family to support.

Also, Natasha is finding each additional pregnancy (and at such a young age) increasingly difficult and tiring to handle, particularly with so many small children to care for as well. So, she hopes that she can convince her husband to allow her to undergo a tubal ligation operation after the birth of this child. In the meantime, to help her manage the stresses of another pregnancy, Natasha has turned to the antenatal care program at the AIC Health and Community Centre.

The antenatal care program will provide complete supportive care and guidance for the duration of her pregnancy, including regular check-ups with the AIC doctor and sponsorship of all medical treatment and medication through AIC. In the event that Natasha needs to see a doctor at the hospital, including at the time of delivery, she is accompanied by one of AIC’s trained health workers.

Finally, Natasha, like all of the pregnant women in the program, has the option of coming to the Centre for mid-day meals and nutritional supplementation if she is experiencing food insecurity at home. All of these services together will ensure thatNatasha’s fourth (and perhaps last) pregnancy is as normal as possible.

Thank you, Keith, Todd, Valerie and Jerry, Candace, David, James, Jeffrey, and Jerame, for coming together to provide comprehensive antenatal care to Natasha.