Healthcare: ‘Deliveries at home can be safe’
4,200 midwives have been trained for home birth.
4,200 midwives have been trained for home birth. PHOTO: AFP
LAHORE:
“For low-risk, normal pregnancies, the benefits of giving birth at home are now widely recognised all over the world,” former dean of Cambridge University John Biggs said on Wednesday.
He was addressing a seminar on maternal mortality in Pakistan at the University of Health Sciences (UHS).
He said women were often more comfortable with their midwives.
Biggs said death in childbirth was a tragedy.
“Pregnancy is not a disease...pregnancy-related morbidity and mortality are preventable,” he said.
Biggs said nearly half a million women died every year from pregnancy-related complications. He said 95 per cent of these deaths were in developing countries.
“One in 40 women die of complications in the developing world, while one in 36,000 face such risk in developed countries,” he said.
He said that haemorrhage, hypertension, unsafe abortions, infections and obstructed labour were some factors that contributed to the higher mortality rate among women in rural areas.
He said all of these were preventable through proper understanding, diagnosis and management of labour complications.
UHS Vice Chancellor Major General (r) Muhammad Aslam said primary healthcare infrastructure should be strengthened to reduce complications during pregnancy and labour.
He said antenatal healthcare should be improved.
He said the university would start a certification course for community midwives and lady health workers.
UHS Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching Director Arif Rashid Khawaja said for healthy women with normal pregnancies, a home birth was now seen as a perfectly safe option in the western world.
He said every woman had the potential to give birth at home.
“It is more important to have adequate resources for good antenatal and postnatal care by trained midwives, quick access to emergency services and careful monitoring by the midwife at home,” he said.
The Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health (MNCH) Deputy Programme Coordinator Sajjid Ali said the status of maternal health was poor in Pakistan.
He said 30,000 women died each year from pregnancy-related causes.
He said the government was integrating services related to maternal, neonatal and child health at district levels and had introduced a new cadre of community midwives to increase the number of skilled birth attendants.
He said 4,200 qualified community midwifes had been deployed in the Punjab.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 21st, 2013.
“For low-risk, normal pregnancies, the benefits of giving birth at home are now widely recognised all over the world,” former dean of Cambridge University John Biggs said on Wednesday.
He was addressing a seminar on maternal mortality in Pakistan at the University of Health Sciences (UHS).
He said women were often more comfortable with their midwives.
Biggs said death in childbirth was a tragedy.
“Pregnancy is not a disease...pregnancy-related morbidity and mortality are preventable,” he said.
Biggs said nearly half a million women died every year from pregnancy-related complications. He said 95 per cent of these deaths were in developing countries.
“One in 40 women die of complications in the developing world, while one in 36,000 face such risk in developed countries,” he said.
He said that haemorrhage, hypertension, unsafe abortions, infections and obstructed labour were some factors that contributed to the higher mortality rate among women in rural areas.
He said all of these were preventable through proper understanding, diagnosis and management of labour complications.
UHS Vice Chancellor Major General (r) Muhammad Aslam said primary healthcare infrastructure should be strengthened to reduce complications during pregnancy and labour.
He said antenatal healthcare should be improved.
He said the university would start a certification course for community midwives and lady health workers.
UHS Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching Director Arif Rashid Khawaja said for healthy women with normal pregnancies, a home birth was now seen as a perfectly safe option in the western world.
He said every woman had the potential to give birth at home.
“It is more important to have adequate resources for good antenatal and postnatal care by trained midwives, quick access to emergency services and careful monitoring by the midwife at home,” he said.
The Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health (MNCH) Deputy Programme Coordinator Sajjid Ali said the status of maternal health was poor in Pakistan.
He said 30,000 women died each year from pregnancy-related causes.
He said the government was integrating services related to maternal, neonatal and child health at district levels and had introduced a new cadre of community midwives to increase the number of skilled birth attendants.
He said 4,200 qualified community midwifes had been deployed in the Punjab.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 21st, 2013.