‘High fertility rate contributing to more maternal deaths’

Speakers decry lack of access to contraceptives for women.

ISLAMABAD:

Speakers on Monday expressed concern that family planning was one of the most neglected components of women’s health in Pakistan as a quarter of women of reproductive age have an unmet need for contraceptives. As a result nearly one million women seek unsafe abortions which may end in maternal deaths.

The public health system has failed to prioritise the delivery of family planning services excepting the Lady Health Workers Programme, said speakers at an interactive session on “New Realities, New Challenges: Interface between Political Leadership and Opinion Makers,” held on Monday at a local hotel. It was organised by Population Council in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund as part of its “Sochain, Badlain, Amal Karain” campaign.

They termed the burgeoning population crisis as critical as current energy crisis, terrorism and extremism.

According to the figures shared with those present, the fertility rate is 3.6 births per woman, while the population growth rate is 1.95 per cent per year.

Some 14,000 mothers die every year from complications during childbirth and one out of three births are spaced less than two years apart. More than 25 per cent women want to practice contraception to space their children or limit their family size but are not offered the facilities to do so, which is why only 30 per cent women practise contraception.

Addressing the participants, National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination State Minister Saira Afzal Tarar said Pakistan’s fertility rate is declining at a much lower pace and remains higher than regional countries including, Iran, India, and Bangladesh.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MNA Shafqat Mahmood said the high population growth was one of the root causes of inflation, terrorism, energy crisis, poor utilisation and distribution of resources in the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 25^th, 2013.