By Andrew Phiri

Balaka, June 12, Mana: Balaka District Health Office says there is a need for the effective dissemination of Social Behavioural Change Communication (SBCC) messages towards the uptake of antenatal services among pregnant women in the district.

Balaka District Director of Health and Social Services (DHSS), Dr Chimwendo Thambo said this in reaction to a current 19 percent uptake of antenatal services by couples in the district.

Thambo made the call on Wednesday in the district when Applied Development Communication and Training Services (ADECOTS) presented its newly introduced Zikuvuta Pati project, a health services awareness and demand creation initiative to Balaka District Executive Committee (DEC).

"Pregnant women who are accessing all the recommended safe motherhood services starting from the first three months of pregnancy prevent major complications that may come within the nine months of expectancy or during the time of childbirth," said Thambo.

"Not only that but also, they should complete all eight visits within the nine months of pregnancy to achieve the maternal health care full package that involves monitoring, vaccinations, malaria prophylaxis and deworming, all these for the benefit of the mother and unborn baby," he added.

He noted that myths and negative misconceptions that families have towards access to maternal services are holding them back from fully utilizing the underlined maternal health services.

The Health Director therefore called for strong collaboration from all stakeholders such as the media, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), council and community leaders to intensify Zikuvuta Pati initiative and meet its goals.

ADECOTS District Manager for Balaka, Brian Banda, said the programme will largely adopt a social behavioral change communication approach in the forms of mass media campaigns and community awareness engagements in order to bridge the maternal health services communication gap that has existed among the district council, community health services providers and the community members.

"Apart from promoting safe motherhood, the programme also seeks to raise more awareness on the issues of nutrition, Youth Friendly Health Services (YFHS), Malaria and Water and Sanitation Hygiene (WASH) because all these are linked to the promotion of uptake of life-saving services which is also the ultimate goal of the initiative," added Banda.

With funding from UNICEF, the initiative will be implemented in phases for four years from May 2025 to May 2028 with a particular focus on pregnant women, mothers of under-five children, women and men of childbearing age and health services providers from the areas of Traditional Authorities (TA) Nsamala, Kalembo, Phalula, Amidu, Sub TA Mbera among others.