27/08/2026
🚨 THIS IS WHY ANTENATAL CARE IS NOT OPTIONA—PART 1
A 34-year-old mother was admitted following an obstetric emergency and underwent an urgent exploratory laparotomy for a ruptured uterus.
She survived the major surgery but her battle was far from over.
Days later, several sites where IV cannulas had been inserted on her arms, hands, neck and leg began to swell, break down and produce pus.
One of the sites on her left upper arm progressed rapidly to necrotizing fasciitis, a severe infection that destroys tissue and can spread quickly through the body.
So the question is:
How can a small, sterile needle/cannula site become the beginning of such a devastating infection?
Further assessment revealed a random blood glucose of 19.5 mmol/L, leading to a diagnosis of previously undiagnosed diabetes mellitus.
According to the hi story, she had not been attending routine antenatal clinic visits.
And this is where antenatal care becomes more than just checking the baby's heartbeat. (From Doc frank). ❤️
🩺 ANC CAN UNCOVER THE SILENT PROBLEMS
Diabetes can exist during pregnancy without obvious symptoms.
Routine antenatal care provides opportunities for healthcare professionals to identify abnormal blood glucose, blood pressure problems, anaemia, infections and other conditions that may put the mother or baby at risk.
When diabetes is poorly controlled, high blood glucose can impair several aspects of the body's immune response and make infections harder to fight. Poor glucose control can therefore become an important factor in serious infections, particularly when combined with surgery, wounds or other stress on the body.
In this mother's case, the combination of major surgery, severe infection and markedly elevated blood glucose created a dangerous situation.
Her treatment required urgent blood-glucose management, fluids, antibiotics and repeated surgical removal of dead/infected tissue to prevent the infection from progressing to sepsis.
