24 April 2004	Saturday	03 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

ISLAMABAD, April 23: Need for a strong network among the government and private sector organizations working for the promotion of mothers health was highlighted during a three-day workshop on "Skilled Birth Attendants in South and West Asia" that concluded here on Thursday.

The workshop was organized by the health ministry and the UNFPA and attended by officials from ministry of health, nursing councils, senior obstetricians and UNFPA staff from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The deliberations focused on improving access to skilled birth attendants at the time of childbirth.

Speaking at the post-workshop press conference on Friday, Dr Olivier Brasseur, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) representative in Pakistan, and Dr Sarma from the UNFPA's regional office at Kathmandu, briefed the mediapersons on the three-day workshop.

During the workshop, they said, participants from nine countries emphasised the need for joint efforts to work out a strategy to curtail the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) in the region.

They said the local media both electronic and print had the role to play to create awareness about the issue of MMR, as if one mother died the entire household got disturbed.

In response to a question, Dr Brasseur said the workshop was the first step towards conception of a collective plan of actions taking all stakeholders on board to provide better health services to the mothers.

He said mothers health was something about child spacing and family planning which needed investment in the health sector both in the infrastructure and capacity building of the staff. He said though Pakistan had infrastructure even at the grass- roots level, it needed trained birth attendants and such (workshop) initiatives would help solve the problem.

At present, the UNFPA is working in 10 under-developed districts of the country to make people aware of the importance of mothers health and provide them with trained birth attendants.

Sharing the experience of the participants with the mediapersons, he said, they were overwhelmed by the scenic beauty of Islamabad and nicer attitude of the people. Dr Sarma said, it was the basic right of every pregnant women to have access to trained birth attendants.

The reason for holding this workshop was that these nine countries contributed to 40 per cent of the world's maternal mortality. In Pakistan 1 in every 31 women are at the risk of dying due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth compared to 1 in 430 in Sri Lanka, they said.

Most of the maternal deaths occur at the time of delivery and immediately after delivery and therefore it is important to ensure skilled attendants at delivery. It has been observed that in countries such as Iran and Sri Lanka where access to skilled attendant at delivery is good, the maternal mortality has come down. This is the first workshop of its kind in south and West Asia, they said.

The conclusions from the workshop are: quite a high percentage of deliveries are home deliveries conducted by unskilled birth attendants. And, Iran, Maldives and Sri Lanka that have low maternal mortality also have high percentage of deliveries in health facilities.

The workshop defined who was a skilled birth attendant in accordance with the international definition developed by WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA. The workshop also identified the skills the birth attendants must have to save lives with special focus on home deliveries.

It was concluded that the duration of training must be adequate to acquire the skills to save the lives of women during childbirth. It is important for the skilled birth attendants to have professional recognition.