There are at least 1.2 million women in reproductive age among the victims of the recent rains in Sindh with 115,000 of them pregnant. The UN Population Fund (UNFPA)-Pakistan office in its communication warned that many of these women who were already severely anaemic would be even more prone to complications of pregnancy and delivery.
With the continuing rains and stagnating water, pregnant women and newborns living in open air are increasingly exposed to malaria and dengue, said the UNFPA authorities. This is in a situation where maternal and child health services in at least 40 percent of health facilities are currently disrupted, whereas every day close to 400 women go into labour; at least 60 have life-threatening pregnancy-related complications that require urgent medical assistance.
“In the relief camps, women and children make up over 70 percent of the camp population,” said a UNFPA official. The agency is working to ensure that the protection needs of displaced women and adolescent girls are not forgotten. In the face of the rapidly evolving emergency, the UNFPA is collaborating with humanitarian partners to deliver reproductive health and protection services to women and adolescent girls.
Twenty-five mobile service units are being moved to seven of the hardest-hit districts in Sindh, namely Badin, Khairpur, Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah, Umerkot, Tando Muhammad Khan and Tando Allahyar Khan. These vehicles are equipped to provide primary healthcare, basic emergency obstetric care and services responding to gender-based violence.
UNFPA officials said they were urgently mobilising more medicines and essential supplies to reach the affected communities. Support would be scaled up to provide comprehensive obstetric services through health facilities in the second phase, they added. Supplies to cover the reproductive health needs of 600,000 people for a month have been dispatched to Sindh and are being distributed in seven severely-affected districts where the number of women is the highest.
UNFPA-Pakistan representative Rabbi Royan was quoted as saying that the UNFPA has ensured that women are able to deliver safely even in times of disaster. While our role remains the same whether in emergency, early recovery or development, in a humanitarian crisis our work becomes even more urgent as the vulnerability of women and girls increases, she said.
