As the third zone gets used to screening

Staff of Cao Loc Regional Medical Center propagate to people of Cong Son commune about the benefits of premarital health check-ups.

Luc Bo village, Cong Son commune has 87 households, including more than 50 couples of childbearing age, some hamlets are 50km away from the center, so the propaganda work of Ms. Hoang Thi Sen, the village population collaborator, has become even busier. Ms. Sen shared: Due to limited economic conditions, many families were initially hesitant and afraid of the cost, but I persistently went to each house to propagate, explain, and tell them real stories so that they could understand and realize the importance of population work, especially reproductive health care services, pre-marital, prenatal, and newborn screening. Now, many women have proactively asked for screening schedules or asked for help registering.

Not only Luc Bo, many other villages of Cong Son commune are also very far from the center, sometimes it takes half a day on the road, the rain and wind make it even more difficult. However, population collaborators are still persistent, persistent "going to every alley, knocking on every door" to carry out propaganda work, changing community awareness. Since the beginning of the year, the commune has organized 31 communication sessions in villages with more than 1,300 listeners; deployed 124 visits, propaganda to 348 families, distributed more than 700 leaflets with specific content such as: controlling gender imbalance at birth, benefits of prenatal and newborn screening, premarital health check-ups...

Mr. Ly Van Nhuan, a population officer of Cong Son commune, said: After the merger, Cong Son has 13 villages with more than 1,300 households, including nearly 1,100 women of childbearing age. The large area and difficult economic conditions are significant challenges for population work. Therefore, in addition to communicating through loudspeakers, officers also go directly to villages, organize thematic talks, and integrate them into vaccination sessions. Thanks to that, people not only listen but also really change their behavior, voluntarily go for pre-marital screening and health check-ups.

Thanks to the consistent and persistent measures of population officers and collaborators, the awareness of Cong Son people about reproductive health care has changed significantly. If screening was unfamiliar in the past, now more and more families consider it necessary to give birth to healthy children. Mr. Mong Truong Giang, Tam Rien village shared: When taking his wife to the commune health station for a pregnancy check-up, my wife and I were advised and informed by the staff about the benefits of prenatal and newborn screening, so we fully performed it. When we received the results that our child's health was normal, my wife and I were very reassured. Young people in the village are no longer hesitant about going for screening as before, and even proactively go to the regional health center for pre-marital check-ups.

Together with Mr. Giang and his wife, from the beginning of 2025 until now, the entire Cong Son commune has performed 54 prenatal screening cases, an increase of 15% over the same period in 2024; 21 newborn screening cases, an increase of 10% over the same period in 2024; 31 couples received premarital health counseling. Thereby, many young people have had their health checked and received vaccination advice before pregnancy, contributing to reducing risks for mothers and babies. These are very encouraging results for a commune in the third region, where economic life is still difficult, but people are gradually getting used to taking care of their reproductive health, considering screening a necessary habit for the future.

Source: https://baolangson.vn/khi-vung-ba-quen-dan-voi-sang-loc-5059461.html