Govt urged to address pregnancy, infant mortality issues

Karachi
Child mortality and pregnancy deaths need urgent care and proper government attention, a seminar was told on Tuesday.
The day-long event was organised by the child survival programme of the Sindh government under paediatrician Dr M N Lal, the project director.
Speakers included eminent health specialists like Dr Ghaffar Billo, Professor Iqbal Memon, Dr Salma Sheikh,Dr Humayun and a number of others.
They all moaned and regretted that illiteracy in rural areas, and resistance to timely education for pregnant mothers, and care for newborns, including use of preventive or curative methods, plus malnutrition remained the principle factors.
Dr Billo said that child mortality rate in Pakistan, despite reduction in recent years, was still very alarming.
“Between 1990 and 2015, it was still far behind the millennium development goals (MGD) set by the UN at 46 per year. In Pakistan, however it had come down from 130 per year to 80 or little over it.”
He explained reasons for that are many, including illiteracy, lack of awareness especially in rural and backward areas, and maternal mortality at the time of delivery was 276 per 100,000, worst in the region.
The world famous paediatrician revealed that nearly three million die in infancy annually and in year 2013 this figure was horrific at 400,000 because of diarrhea, and pneumonia. Dr Billo, referring to WHO programme of integrated and intensified programme, emphasised breastfeeding and suggested foolproof methods to prevent child mortality.
Most of the speakers suggested, through slides and demonstrations, ways to handle the sensitive issue of child birth, both for the pregnant mothers, and the new life coming into the world.
Use of vitamins like A, B, C and D and inoculations etc were stressed.
Dr Lal stated that too many prejudices, and refusal to accept preventive measures at the time of delivery, aggravated the problem. “Would-be mothers need to be made conscious of factors contributing to mother and infant health.”
He stressed doctors and those involved in maternity process ought to learn that child delivery was a science and should to be taken seriously. “A child must be made to cry soon after coming into the world. In case of problem, artificial respiration must be instantly resorted to save the life of the new born or else brain damage may occur.”