Thousands of women die each year due to complications of pregnancy and 10 times more women develop life-long pregnancy-related disability.
Renowned Gynecologist Dr Hmeeda Jagrani talking to APP here on Friday said that rural women’s health is generally poorest due to lack of health facilities and skilled health providers. She said that the health status of women is directly linked to women’s low social status.
She said in terms of health status, the figures are galling and added the untimely death or disability of a woman, a tragedy in itself, adversely affects the health of her children, household productivity and the national economy.
Dr. Hameeda said about 25 percent of children are born with low birth weight due to maternal problems and ten percent of children do not reach their first birthday. She said high fertility, with an average of six children per woman, has resulted in high population growth of three percent per annum. Consequently, improving women’s reproductive health through the use of contraceptives and spacing of children will not only improve women’s health but also reduce population growth and allow women more time to pursue economic activities. She said that malnutrition is a major public health problem that disproportionately affects women and girls”, she said.
She said that more girls than boys die between the age of 1 and 4 and the female mortality rate here is 12 percent higher than for boys. Dr Hameeda said that this is a direct consequence of the lower social status accorded to women and girls, who as a result tend to eat less and face additional barriers when accessing health care. She said women, girls and infants most often die of common communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, diarrhea, pneumonia and tetanus, which could have been easily prevented and treated. She informed that the article 39 of the Constitution of Pakistan clearly maintained provision of health care to all the citizens without any discrimination is the responsibility of the state.
She said the poor and particularly the poor women are the worst victim of inefficient health care system that continues leading to silent deaths. She further demands of the Government to enhance the budgetary allocation in the health sector in order to improve health facilities to the common people particularly women.
