Women should consider optimum gestational age for births – Medical Officer
A woman’s peak reproductive years are between the late teens and late 20s, Dr. Mrs. Dorothy Hanson, a Medical Officer at the International Maritime Hospital (IMaH), has said.
By age 30, fertility, ability to get pregnant, begins to decline.
“This decline happens faster once you reach your mid-30s. By 45, fertility has declined so much that getting pregnant naturally is unlikely, Dr. Mrs. Hanson stated.
She recommended that all things being equal, women should give birth, “not too early or too late as they all have their respective complications.”
“Women should also consider proper spacing children,” she said, and stressed that women should consider giving birth before their 30th birthday.
Dr. Hansen said giving birth at a young age is better; nonetheless, the interval between children was crucial.
Dr. Hanson made the remarks at the weekly “Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility,” a Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office initiative aimed at promoting health-related communication and providing a platform for health information dissemination to influence personal health choices through improved health literacy.
The Tema Regional Office of the Ghana News Agency launched the public health advocacy platform “Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility” to examine the components of four health communication approaches: informing, instructing, persuading, and promoting.
She suggested that spacing the birth of children between the ages of two and four years is ideal when the body had recovered from the previous delivery and was ready for another.
She said the body reacted to giving birth as if it were the first time after a four-year interval.
The IMaH Medical Officer advised married couples to evaluate their financial and personal circumstances because some women had conditions that required them to limit births due to the high risk of mortality.
Dr. Mrs. Hanson recommended that young people marry early because giving birth early frequently allowed them to achieve the body stature, they desired and live life more fully.
Contributing to the discussion, Mr. Samuel Atuahene Antwi, Nutritionist Officer at Tema Metropolitan Health Directorate, said the reproductive system of women in their younger years produces quality eggs.
He said women’s reproductive lifespan evolved within the menstrual cycle period; nevertheless, the fertility of eggs produced at ages 18 and up was of higher quality than eggs produced at ages 30 and up.
Mr. Antwi also believed that giving birth at a young age was easier than giving birth at an older age when the woman and newborn were more likely to have abnormalities.
According to the Nutritionist, as individuals become older, they lose interest in many things. early parenthood stimulates young couples since they have the energy to take care of their children’s development.
Source: Ghana News
