17-year-old Maimuna Salihu is pregnant. This isn’t an isolated occurrence in Andaza, Jigawa State, Northwest of Nigeria. What might be uncommon is how she is feeling. She’s often sick; she has difficulty breathing, dizziness, lethargy, and general malice. She sometimes vomits, loses her appetite, and spends her days either sleeping or thinking about sleep.
“These are normal pregnancy signs,” her husband assured her when she shared with him how she was feeling. He is 20 years old.
Her friend didn’t think it was normal. She advised her to talk to someone else about it, perhaps the ladies at the center that runs some program or the other. When she visited them, the lady who welcomed her was surprised that she hadn’t attended any ante-natal clinic. Not for this pregnancy or her previous one.
She asked her to join a group of pregnant girls the following day for a pre-ANC session, which entailed the red flags to watch out for in pregnancy, which sounded a lot like what she was experiencing. Later, in another room, a lady in a white lab coat performed a physical examination on her. She noticed the paleness and discoloration of Maimuna’s eyes. A few more lab tests confirmed that she was anemic. Her husband was summoned immediately and together, they were counseled on the importance of ANC visits and why it was vital to take supplements such as folic acid and iron. Because of her condition, she was admitted to the facility where, at the time of writing this article, she was undergoing treatment.
She is doing well now; eight months pregnant, in great health, and continues to attend ANC visits.
