Expressing concern over growing number of deaths of women in pregnancy-related complications, speakers at a seminar here Sunday stressed the need for taking practical measures to improve the situation.
The seminar was arranged by the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Pakistan (SOGP) to sensitize the people about maternal health issues.
A noted gynaecologist and head of gynaecology department, Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC), Prof Dr Lubna Hasan, was elected as president SOGP for the next three years.
Awami National Party Senator Haji Mohammad Adeel was the chief guest. Former SOGP president Dr Shershah Syed, Dr Omar Ayub, director of the Health Foundation Prof Dr Nasreen Rubi, head of gynaecology department, Lady Reading Hospital, Dr Sadia Rizwan and others talked about the lack of health facilities at the public sector hospitals for women.
The social, cultural and economic norms in Pakistan, they lamented, were mostly anti-women and they were not consulted on child-bearing and society as a whole was not giving importance to women’s health issues.
The speakers said that three women died every hour due to pregnancy-associated complications, adding that more than 30,000 young women died every year in Pakistan to record maternal mortality ratio of 276 per 100,000 live births. Among them, they said, 13 per cent women lost lives due to unsafe abortion-related practices.
In Pakistan, the speakers said, about 890,000 induced abortions occur annually as one out of six pregnancies was terminated by induced abortion through unsafe manner while 36.81 per cent of abortions were conducted by unskilled traditional birth attendants or daies (midwives), causing serious complications.
Dr Lubna Hasan said 61 per cent women received antenatal care at least from a health professional, while the hardest-hit were the poor and rural women. She said difference between the doctor and patient was widening, particularly when the patient was poor and female.
She held the society, government, politicians, judiciary and media responsible for keeping silent over women’s rights. Other speakers said almost all abortion-related deaths and disabilities could be prevented with emergency medical procedures that required only basic equipment, skills and drugs. They said in most of the cases women died or suffered permanent disability because they did not receive timely medical care.
They stressed abortion in Pakistan could be conducted not only to save the life of woman but also as necessary treatment.
In his concluding remarks, Senator Haji Adeel accused the family planning department of embezzling billions of funds provided by the foreign donors for population control. He said Pakistan’s population had grown due to failure of the family planning department.
The ANP leader gave the example of Bangladesh where, he said, the government had involved clerics in the process and paid them stipends for their role in controlling the population. He also accused the doctors of fleecing the poor patients in their private clinics.
“Senior doctors always spend their official time in so-called seminars and workshops and then mint money in their private clinics in the evening.
"Everybody knows that pharmaceutical companies arrange foreign trips for families of the doctors, pay for wedding ceremonies of their wards and buy them expensive cars. What we need is to bring about a change in our attitude,” he said.
Source: M. Yusufzai, The News, 26 July 2010