Creative writing contest. The importance of Premarital counseling and screening

Premarital counseling refers to a type of therapy that prepare people for marriage especially for the couple to set realistic goals and develop strategies to be able to resolve conflict in marriage. Screening on the part refers to the lab test which are being carried out on both partners before marriage.
PREMARITAL COUNSELING
Before marriage, it is always advice able that a couple meet atleast 3 councilors. I Cameroon, given the poor nature of most people, they are unable to afford to pay a counselor. In this light, they are advised to meet with two couples who have experience marriage and the pastor. With these people we don't need money to visit them.
PREMARITAL SCREENING
I will dwel more on this because it has come to my notice that most couple do not know how important premarital screening is and how it can affect them after marriage. There are a series of lab test which are to be carried out on the couple at the same time and in the same hospital ( not advise to do it at different hospital and different time) some of these test include,

• screening for HIV and sexually transmittable disease
• Electrophoresis
• ABA blood group screening
• fertility test
• communicable disease
  SCREENING FOR HIV AND SEXUALLY TRANSMITTABLE DISEASES : Screening for HIV is very important before marriage. When is a couple is about to get married, it is good they both go to a state recognize hospital and carry out HIV screening together. Screening helps to educate the couple on how to live. If screening is done and it's noticed that one person is positive, it does not automatically mean separation but rather helps you to live a healthy life. If the center of your marriage is love, then you have to instead support your partner and not abandon him (discordant pair). If this happens, you both need a good councilor to educate you on how to live a happy and healthy life. The positive partner will immediately be placed on treatment and the risk of transmission to the other partner is 99% low. It is better to discover his status out of marriage and take a decision than to enter before you receive the shock.

Testing for sexually transmittable diseases (STD) like Hep B, chlamedia, syphilis etc is equally important. Hep B vaccine will help prepare the couple's psychology. In case one person(woman) is positive, the other person can take the vaccine to protect himself. After child birth, the baby will have to take a vaccine to protect the baby from having it. Chlamedia and syphilis test help to exclude representative health problems. In most cases, these diseases destroy the woman's representative system. It is then you discover a woman married for years and every year miscarriage or even unable to concieve. If these STD are detected early enough it will help both the mother and their unborn children.
ELECTROPHORESIS
This is one of the most important test to be carried out by a couple. This test determine the type of children you will give birth to and exclude sickle cell anemia. If you both are AA, then it's good. If one person is AS and another AA, it's ok . But if both are AS or SS, then better separate. No matter how Inlove you may be, never get married if a Doctor refuses because of this reason. You will live a short love life and eternal held of problems. Only the suffering the child will go through, both parents will live to regret why they got married.

ABA BLOOD GROUP and rhesus factor
This does not greatly affect the decision of the couple to get married. It only affects them in future if they don't take to advice. If the both partners are rhesus negative, they don't have any problem. If the woman is negative and gets pregnant, she should be ready to take a vaccine immediately after birth within 72hours(thought very expensive). Even if it ends up in abortion she must take the vaccine. Most people don't see the importance of this vaccine especially after the first child. You know the consequences when all the other pregnancies following that first child turn to be abortions or die immediately after birth. Mind you, if you fail to take the vaccine after the each baby born, there is nothing to be done (Meaning if you intend to have 5 children, you will equally take the vaccine 5times).
FERTILITY TEST.
This is not really practiced in our African context because we have that believe every woman is representative. This test is carried out to determine if the couple are fertile or not. This is very necessary for men because not everyone who release sperm can impregnate a woman. It's then you see women being insulted whereas it's the man who has a problem. This test help to reduce stigma inflicted on the woman by their in-laws

COMMUNICABLE DISEASES
Some of these include diabetes and high blood pressure. These diseases are know to be herriditory. It has been noted that when these diseases are found in a family, their children turn to have the same condition. For instance, if one parent is diabetic, it means what ever he or she eats, her children turn to eat the same thing. The unfortunate thing with this disease is that it starts manifesting at a very old age. So if you have a family history (grand parents) of any of these, it is important to live a life that will not predispose you to have the disease.

To conclude, let's try as much as possible to attend pre marital counciling and screening as this will help us live a happy married life and have healthy children.
I will not end without thanking the @greens for such an opportunity for me to be able to reach out many people through this contest.
Thanks for reading