Unnecessary swabs for pregnant women | The Minis …

With the signature of the secretary of Health of the province, Jorge Prieto, the Ministry of the area established yesterday that “the realization of RT-PCR by nasopharyngeal swab is not recommended in asymptomatic pregnant women; either prior to routine controls or for complementary studies , deliveries or cesarean sections, as well as in people who require scheduled surgery, complying in all cases with the measures for the use of personal protective equipment and biosecurity indicated in the current provincial protocol “. The complaint arose from the Observatorio de Violencia Obstetrica (OVO) Rosario groups, the Self-convened Collective Women in Tribe and Doulas, both from Rosario and Santa Fe, Latiendo Juntos and Membyra. The complaints that had reached her were of the requirement of a swab with the payment of between 6 and 8,000 pesos, which the women were informed shortly before the probable date of delivery.

“With immense joy and emotion for the enormous struggle deployed by women’s organizations that defend the rights in labor and birth and fight against obstetric violence, we want to thank the commitment and support we had from councilors, both from Rosario as from Santa Fe, provincial deputies and officials from the provincial and municipal health area, “they said in a statement after the resolution was released.

The text of what was resolved by the provincial Ministry of Health states that “in accordance with the information provided by the Directorate of the Provincial Epidemiology Program, the request for diagnostic studies has been verified on several occasions, in pregnant women and people with scheduled surgeries, which could delay the care of patients not suspected of covid-19 “. Therefore, they recall that “the recommendations for pregnant women with suspicion and / or confirmation of COVID-19 do not differ from those indicated for the adult population, being essential to maintain isolation and biosecurity measures in all stages of care.” And therefore, swabbing “is only recommended for those patients who meet clinical-epidemiological criteria for a suspected case according to the current provincial protocol, or are close contacts of a confirmed case within 14 days prior to the intervention.”

For this reason, the recommendation “is applicable to all patients who require a scheduled surgical intervention, complying in all cases with the measures for the use of personal protective equipment and biosecurity indicated for the pandemic.”

The ministerial resolution was disseminated by the members of the feminist groups themselves. “As we have been saying for months, when they began to extortively demand swabs from pregnant women who were cared for in some private health institutions, there was no medical or protocol reason to justify this demand in healthy people and without symptoms or suspicious criteria of infection by covid-19 “. For this reason, the organizations together knocked on “the doors of any body that could put a stop to this outrage.” “Our rights are still in force!” Said the organizations, who embraced “all the women who had to go through this bad time but who dared to report, to send us their experiences and consultations and also committed themselves to this situation does not continue to harm others after them. “

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