EDO health Abdur Rasheed Khattak, presided over the meeting a while large number of healthcare services providers and representatives of Khwendo Kor including Wali-ur-Rahman, Nazia Syed, Dr Shaida Hassain, Dr Akram and others were also present in the meeting. The said that an early marriage below 15 year and above 35 of age increases the risk of Post-Partum Hemorrhage (PPH) and chances of death of women during delivery. They highlighted the importance of Misoprostol for delivery during childbirth, they termed it a suitable tablet and stressed for inclusion of it in Fata and provincial Drug List for prevention and treatment of PPH.
Dr Akram Shah endorsed the misoprostol and expressed fear that the tablet would be misused; therefore, he demanded inclusion of the tablet in Controlled Drug list in order to avoid it keeping untouched sans childbirth only. Giving statistics of women dying during childbirth, they said globally more than 350,000 women die every year from preventable complications related to pregnancy and child birth. Pakistan ranks third highest in the world with estimated 276 out of 100,000 number of maternal deaths, behind India and Nigeria.
Shaida Hussain on the occasion said Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) and Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) were reduced for some extent in Lady Health Workers (LHWs) controlled areas not only in district Peshawar but also in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa. The participants therefore, emphasised for holding more and more seminars in the far-flung areas of Peshawar aimed at creating awareness among the people regarding PPH and proper training must be imparted to the health care providers so that MMR could be reduced from 278 to 140 as per commitment with Millennium Development Goals till 2015.