Mother and Child week starts today
G-B residents are celebrating “Mother and Child week” to create awareness about high mortality rate of pregnant...
GILGIT:
A deficient communication system and bad road networks are two of the main causes that result in the increased mortality rate of women during pregnancy in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), officials said on Sunday.
The comparatively high mortality rate of mothers in G-B worries not only the residents of the area but also the staff of the Health department who are celebrating “Mother and Child week” from November 1 in an attempt to create awareness among the masses.
“We are trying to inform people about the importance of a healthy diet during pregnancy and how important it is for women to get checked in hospitals so that they are guided properly during their pregnancies,” an official of the Health department said.
“It’s a difficult task for one to reach a hospital on time because access to and from these valleys is very difficult,” Dr Hassan Amacha, project Director National Program for Family Planning and Primary Health Care, told The Express Tribune. Lack of functioning infrastructure is the biggest cause of deaths Dr Hassan said.
Travelling to the city from areas like Skardu, Diamer, Ghizer and Hunza-Nagar are not ideal as frequent landslides cause road blockades and hinder the smooth flow of traffic. In a situation like that, transporting patients to better equipped hospitals in the city is impossible and leave them at the mercy of barely functioning hospitals in G-B.
Apart from Gilgit, the provincial headquarter of G-B, there are only 4 District Headquarter Hospitals (DHQ) in the region. “Such delays are a major factor in these losses,” said Dr Amacha, adding that the situation is made worse by poverty and the lack of awareness among people especially those who live in valleys. Women, he said, are usually brought to hospitals too late.
“Most of our people are poor, and most of our villages lack proper health facilities including trained staff which leads to a lot of fatalities,” he said.
“The mortality rate of an infant during the first few days after birth is 45 out of 1,000 while the mortality rate of mothers after giving birth is 350 out of 100, 000,” Dr Amacha said.
“The situation is grim and we are aware of it. We are trying to reduce the mortality rate of mothers and infants through various programmes,” he said, adding that lack of awareness and trained staff in far-flung
valleys is yet another factor contributing to the worsening situation.
An official in DHQ said that as part of its health improvement programme, the government is providing training to local women of various valleys so that they feel comfortable communicating their problems.
According to official statistics, the literacy rate among females in G-B is 33 per cent while the ‘child bearing age of women’ is 0.262 million in the region with a population of over 1.2 million. The growth rate of G-B is bellow 3 per cent.
“The women lack vitamins, iron and other nutrients necessary for a balanced diet,” an official said. The government needs to take steps so that these women can be provided with all these things.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 1st, 2010.
A deficient communication system and bad road networks are two of the main causes that result in the increased mortality rate of women during pregnancy in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), officials said on Sunday.
The comparatively high mortality rate of mothers in G-B worries not only the residents of the area but also the staff of the Health department who are celebrating “Mother and Child week” from November 1 in an attempt to create awareness among the masses.
“We are trying to inform people about the importance of a healthy diet during pregnancy and how important it is for women to get checked in hospitals so that they are guided properly during their pregnancies,” an official of the Health department said.
“It’s a difficult task for one to reach a hospital on time because access to and from these valleys is very difficult,” Dr Hassan Amacha, project Director National Program for Family Planning and Primary Health Care, told The Express Tribune. Lack of functioning infrastructure is the biggest cause of deaths Dr Hassan said.
Travelling to the city from areas like Skardu, Diamer, Ghizer and Hunza-Nagar are not ideal as frequent landslides cause road blockades and hinder the smooth flow of traffic. In a situation like that, transporting patients to better equipped hospitals in the city is impossible and leave them at the mercy of barely functioning hospitals in G-B.
Apart from Gilgit, the provincial headquarter of G-B, there are only 4 District Headquarter Hospitals (DHQ) in the region. “Such delays are a major factor in these losses,” said Dr Amacha, adding that the situation is made worse by poverty and the lack of awareness among people especially those who live in valleys. Women, he said, are usually brought to hospitals too late.
“Most of our people are poor, and most of our villages lack proper health facilities including trained staff which leads to a lot of fatalities,” he said.
“The mortality rate of an infant during the first few days after birth is 45 out of 1,000 while the mortality rate of mothers after giving birth is 350 out of 100, 000,” Dr Amacha said.
“The situation is grim and we are aware of it. We are trying to reduce the mortality rate of mothers and infants through various programmes,” he said, adding that lack of awareness and trained staff in far-flung
valleys is yet another factor contributing to the worsening situation.
An official in DHQ said that as part of its health improvement programme, the government is providing training to local women of various valleys so that they feel comfortable communicating their problems.
According to official statistics, the literacy rate among females in G-B is 33 per cent while the ‘child bearing age of women’ is 0.262 million in the region with a population of over 1.2 million. The growth rate of G-B is bellow 3 per cent.
“The women lack vitamins, iron and other nutrients necessary for a balanced diet,” an official said. The government needs to take steps so that these women can be provided with all these things.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 1st, 2010.