KARACHI, March 4: Forty-four per cent of local women expecting babies are reportedly denied quality food, a prerequisite for both mother and baby.

A study conducted by the National Committee for Maternal Health further mentions that about 25 per cent of all babies are of low birth weight, that is less than 2.5 kg.

A total of 400,000 to 500,000 of these babies are either born dead or they die within the first week of birth every year, reflecting the poor nutritional health status and the health care available to the mother.

About 54 per cent of the new borns die soon after their birth, while 12 per cent of them are them are delivered by traditional birth attendants (TBAs).

This is in the backdrop of the fact that lifetime risk of maternal death in Pakistan is one in 38 as compared to one in 230 in Sri Lanka, one in 5,100 in the UK and one in 6000 in Sweden.

While an estimated 30,000 maternal deaths occur annually, that is one woman dies every 20 minutes, the majority of deaths (over 80 per cent) is reported due to direct causes as haemorrhage, eclampsia, sepsis, ruptured and abortion — a proof of inadequate maternal care.

The scenario was stated to be also an immediate outcome of the fact that a large number of local women live in an environment of poverty, low literacy, mal-nourishment, high parity, poor health services and their under utilization along with gender discrimination.—APP