PESHAWAR: The health department will launch a five-year initiative to cut down deaths of mothers and newborns through upgradation of services in the public sector hospitals of the province.

Dr Tanveer Inam, deputy director mother and child health (MCH) section at the directorate-general health services Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told Dawn that Newborns Survival Strategy (2022-27) would be launched by federal government in all provinces to bring down maternal and infant mortality rates across the country.

He said that under the initiative deaths of mothers and children would be investigated to ascertain the causes and take appropriate measures.

A meeting will be held in Islamabad after which each province will get go-ahead for the project.

Services will be upgraded in health facilities under the project

“The provinces will chalk out their own strategies to bring down infant mortality rate from existing 41 per 1,000 live births to 35 towards the end of the project. We have already started an exercise to upgrade MCH services in 250 health facilities,” said Dr Tanveer.

He said that health department had started sending medical supplies and hygiene kits besides deploying human resources to ensure safe deliveries of pregnant women in flood-stricken areas.

“As per international standard, there are 3.4 per cent pregnant women among the population and 2.9 per cent of them would be delivering babies. They all require attention to save lives of mothers and neonates,” he said. He added that maternal mortality rate in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was 165 compared to 158 in Punjab, he said.

“We have registered pregnant women in 11 flood-hit districts to ensure their regular checkup to prevent birth-related complications in the affected areas,” said Dr Tanveer.

He said that they had established eight facilities in Tank, five in Swat and one in Charsadda as part of plan to provide pre-and post-natal care to 26,247 registered pregnant women in flood-affected districts in collaboration with World Hhealth Organisation, United Nations Children Fund and United Nations Population Fund.

“Now people have access to MCH services in basic health units where free delivers are conducted with proper labour rooms,” said Dr Tanveer.

He said that the three-year scheme reflected in Annual Development Programme was meant to provide services to people in their nearest health facilities to ensure mandatory checkups before and after deliveries.

He said that in post-flood efforts, women were being provided with hygiene kits, nutrition supplements and medicines to avoid infections and mother and child stay safe through deliveries handled by birth attendants under qualified health professionals.

Dr Tanveer said that they had deployed regular staffers to extend medical assistance to 11,868 pregnant women in Swat, 6,436 in Kolai Palas, 2,621 in Shangla, 944 in Charsadda, 815 in Nowshera, 642 in Dera Ismail Khan, 557 in Upper Chitral, 487 in Tank, 398 in Lower Kohistan, 376 in Lower Chitral and 103 in Upper Kohistan.

He said that collection of data of pregnant women would continue to ensure safe deliveries as people were prone to low hemoglobin levels, which caused anemia.

He said that regular checkups were necessary to take corrective steps.

He said that high blood pressure was one of the causes of maternal mortality, which could be avoided through checkups. He added that malnourishment also caused maternal mortality, which was preventable.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2022