KARACHI: Emphasising the need for birth spacing, speakers at a conference held on Tuesday linked women’s empowerment to success in family planning, and said subsequent pregnancies not only increase risk for complications for mothers, but also put their babies at risk of low birth weight and preterm birth.

The event – Family Planning Conference 2023 – held at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre was jointly organised by the hospital’s gynae/obs department, Prof Shereen Bhutta Centre of Excellence in Women Health and Research, population welfare department and Pathfinder International.

It brought together experts from the public and private sector, all advocating immediate steps for promotion of family planning in society.

Speaking as the chief guest at the programme, Sindh Minister for Health Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho expressed her concern over the growing population and said it could only be effectively controlled through contraception.

“Women should be given the right to decide on pregnancy and no one should pressurise a woman to get pregnant,” she said.

Health minister shows concern over growing population

Explaining her point, Dr Azra said back-to-back pregnancies increased risk for both the mother and the baby.

“In this respect, every member of the society should work for family planning. On the government side, the health department is providing exemplary healthcare services,” she added.

In his speech, Prof Amjad Siraj Memon, Vice Chancellor of the Jinnah Sindh Medical University (JSMU), said vasectomy was an important tool to control growing population and its services should be provided at all hospitals.

“Dozens of people in the UK go to hospitals for vasectomy every week. In Karachi, however, only 250 people seek the procedure in a whole year. It’s a very low rate,” he regretted, while underscoring the need for public awareness on family planning methods.

Sharing her experience of rural areas, Dr Nighat Shah, Associate Professor at the JSMU, said encouraging trends were being observed in villages where our teams were working on family planning.

Dr Talib Lashari, associated with the provincial population welfare department as a technical adviser, said the rate of family planning after the birth of a child used to be one per cent, but now it has increased to 15pc.

“Having said that, I believe there are still many areas where we need to focus on making a larger impact. For instance, all doctors have the responsibility to encourage family planning,” he said.

Dr Yasmeen Qazi representing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Pakistan said birth spacing was extremely important for mothers’ health and should be promoted at all levels, including members of the assemblies in their respective constituencies.

During the conference, experts representing Dow University, Aga Khan University, Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences, Peoples University of Medical & Health Sciences for Women, Nawabshah, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University, Larkana, Khairpur Medical College, Ziauddin University and Koohi Goth Hospital, Bin Qasim Town, Karachi, shared data on family planning from their respective institutions.

They were of the opinion that education was the best way to promote family planning and that religious scholars and healthcare providers, including nurses and midwives, should be motivated to promote the concept.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2023