KARACHI: Maternal anaemia and respectful maternal care remained in focus during a workshop on ‘Malnutrition and respectful maternity care reporting’ organised by White Ribbon Alliance at the Centre for Excellence in Journalism (CEJ) at the Institute of Business Administration on Monday.

“Pakistan has the lowest indicators about maternal health in South Asia,” said Dr Asma Badar, national campaign manager for White Ribbon Alliance, during her presentation on the issue of maternal care in Sindh.

“Hospitals and staff not doing their job is only the tip of the iceberg. Lack of awareness is also there. Then about 70 per cent of health is out of the pocket here, meaning we go looking for healthcare only when things cannot be ignored. We don’t know about preventive aspects,” she said, pointing to the primary healthcare structure not working. “Health system is also outsourced in many places,” she added.

According to her, there are three major causes of post-natal deaths in Pakistan — haemorrhage during delivery, blood pressure issues and infection. “Infection can also be from before or it can be hospital-acquired. And there can be other things, too, such as how healthy the mother was before conceiving.

“We have not been able to control our birth rate and mothers are usually malnourished as their diet has never been a priority in families, especially in the interior of Sindh,” she said. “There is a trend of early marriages after which the girls start producing children every year,” she added.

Coming to the practical side of things and how to come up with worthy health stories, which can be prioritised by the news desk, veteran journalist Mukhtar Alam also gave his views.

“Health is a specialised beat and not for a reporter juggling 10 other beats,” he observed.

Mr Alam said: “It requires curiosity, the willingness to work hard, have a sense of fairness and eagerness to learn along with the commitment to uphold high ethical standards.” 

CEJ Director Kamal Siddiqi said political stories usually made it to the front page and it was sad that health was not taken as a priority by the news desk. “In fact health is even more important than the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor,” he added.

“Our problem is the lack of specialisation. There are few experts. And most reporters want to get into political reporting as they feel they get more recognition there. There is a need for a change of mindset. Everything related to health cannot be money-related. It should be merit-based and reporters should not leave the issue once they have written about it. There is a need for follow-ups, too. Follow-ups are a big part of journalism,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2017