"About 80 percent of deliveries were carried out at home in the rural areas, while 70 percent were being conducted by unskilled birth attendants in the country," the participants stated in the 2nd meeting of MNH, steering committee Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (KP) organised by Khendo Kor held here at the Directorate General Health Services (DGHS) supported by Mercy Corps and Research and Advocacy Fund (RAF) on Saturday.
Notable speakers included Nazra Saeed, Hafeezullah Khattak and Wali-ur-Rahman of Khendo Kor, Dr Kamran from UNICEF, Dil Nawaz, Dr Noor, Dr Ameen, Dr Iqbal and others. Dr Hafeezullah Khattak in his presentation said that according to the demographic and household survey 2006-7 (2008) and multiple indicators cluster survey, FATA 2009, there were figures of Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) including 785 in Balochistan, 380 FATA, 314 Sindh, 275 Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (KP),227 Punjab, 201 Azad Jammu Kashmir out of 100,000 per annum.
Globally more than 350,000 women die every year from preventable complications related to pregnancy and child birth. Pakistan's rank is the third highest in the world with estimated 276 out of 100000 numbers of maternal deaths, behind India and Nigeria. One mother dies every 20 minutes which indicates that three mothers die every hour while 350,000 mothers annually bear the burden of maternal ills and disability. The postpartum period is one of the most vulnerable for mothers, yet neither health programmes nor mothers and families recognise this vulnerability.
He said that there were many reasons behind the deaths of pregnant women during childbirth but PPH (Severe bleeding after birth) was the major one of them that caused women deaths. Highlighting the importance of Misoprostol for delivery during childbirth, he termed it a suitable tablet and stressed for the inclusion of it in the FATA and provincial Drug List for prevention and treatment of PPH. The participants expressed their apprehension lest misoprostol should be misused therefore, they stressed for proper training to health care providers to avoid misuse.