KARACHI, Jan 17: Speakers at a seminar on Tuesday stressed need for removing social and religious misperceptions about using contraceptive methods, which was requisite for proper family planning.

The seminar on reproductive health was organized by the Sindh Population Department at the National Institute of Public Administration.

The health experts said there was dire need in Pakistan to educate women about their reproductive rights and sensitize their male companions to consult their wives on birth-related matters.

Addressing the seminar, Sindh Social Welfare Secretary Mushtaq Ali Memon said that the Cairo Conference of 1994 had widened the scope of family planning by making health aspects of expected mothers’ part of agenda.

Regarding measures to check population growth, he said that the government succeeded in restricting population growth rate to 1.9 per cent this year. He expressed hope that it would be brought down to 1.64 per cent by the year 2008. In this respect, he said that his department was providing services and promoting family planning.

Dr Yasmin Sabi Kazi said that around 10,000 abortions were reported in the country every year. This high abortion rate, she said, indicated that most births occurred against the will of women.

She said social restrictions and discrimination had limited the capabilities of a mother, who was responsible for better health of her foetus. Similarly, 60 to 70 per cent births take place in homes away from proper medical facilities, which also contributed to nearly 30,000 deaths reported annually due to pregnancy-related complications.

She said that the basic issue was to empower women with right to control child births.

Dr Rukhsana of Civil Hospital Karachi said that counselling of women who were seeking advice on contraception and related issues was vital, as birth-preventive measures were taboo in our society.

She said if any biological defect restricted a woman from using contraceptive drugs and the couple still wanted no children it was responsibility of the man to use contraception for preventing births.

“Family planning is not about restricting births but it is meant to reproduce enough children, which a family can raise,” said Dr Ayesha Nasir, a specialist associated with the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

She said that absence of medically required duration between births, malnutrition and non-excess to trained medical practitioners were responsible for poor reproductive health of mothers. “Safe motherhood is the most important pillar of child’s health,” she said.

Condemning young age marriages, she said that young women face numerous complications at the time of birth and that this also jeopardized the health of their children.

She also urged the government to take action against unprofessional midwives and fooling innocent people with old methods.

Dr Shabana Zameen said that there were many misperceptions about contraceptive drugs. However, she said doctors should be consulted before using medicines.

Justice (retd) Abdul Waheed Siddiqui said that Islam did not prohibit birth control and family planning. He also used some quotations from the books of renowned Muslim scholars to support his argument.

MPA Fareeda Baloch said that the government was committed to population welfare and numerous steps were being taken in this regard.

Nasreen Jamal and others also spoke. —PPI