The National Family Planning Board (NFPB) has launched a campaign geared at promoting health-seeking behaviours among pregnant women.

‘Healthy Baby, Healthy You: Healthy Body is a Mus’... Clinic is a Mus’ aims to increase the utilisation of clinical services, promote the importance of timely healthcare interventions, and improve health outcomes for women in high-risk pregnancies.

“One of the very specific objectives of the campaign is that we want to increase by 30 per cent the number of women of childbearing age who can identify high blood pressure as the number-one killer of pregnant women in Jamaica,” she explained.

A 20 per cent increase in the number of women between zero and eight weeks pregnant who seek prenatal care; and also a 20 per cent improvement in the number of females who know that becoming pregnant soon after giving birth is not ideal for their sexual and reproductive health, are among the other campaign objectives.

“I’ve heard too often in my four years here that too many women meet a doctor for the first time when they are giving birth, which means that they do not go to the clinic, they do not look after their own bodies, they are not aware of the risks that their unborn babies are exposed to during pregnancy, and that just cannot happen,” the ambassador shared.