KARACHI, Dec 18: Political will at all levels was urged for the progress and dignified existence of local women, constituting about 48 per cent of the country's population, with nearly 32 million of them in childbearing age , a majority of whom is said to be at a greater risk of dying during pregnancy.

Speakers said this at a seminar on "Initiatives in Women's Health" held under the National Committee for Maternal Health and Unicef, Sindh.

Experts attending the programme, hailing from different parts of the country, were unanimous in their opinion that local women, who generally suffered from poor health, had a poorer maternal health as more than 38 per cent of the pregnant women were anaemic, while one-third of the pregnant and half of the lactating women took less than 70 per cent of the recommended calories. Households here were also said to be spending less on women than on men in the event of illness.

Senior gynaecologist, Prof Sadiqua N Jafarey, Ms Imtiaz Kamal, Dr Aftab Munir, Dr Taslim Malik, Dr Tufail Mohammad, Dr Ghazala Durrani, Dr Azra Ahsan and Dr Asif Aslam of Unicef-Sindh were among those who spoke on the occasion.

It was observed that health services, especially in the public sector, continued to be insufficient, and the quality of care inadequate. Owing to very reason, utilization of these services remained very low.

Over 70 per cent of the total women population (83 per cent rural and 40 per cent urban) did not get any antenatal care, and only about half (54 per cent) of the pregnant women were fully immunized against tetanus, while more than 80 per cent deliveries (89 per cent rural and 64 per cent urban) took place at home, and just 20 per cent births occurred under the care of trained attendants, the seminar was informed.

Less than a quarter of the mothers received any postnatal care, the experts said, referring to the WHO data revealing that a lifetime risk of maternal deaths in Pakistan was one in 38 as compared to one in 230 in Sri Lanka, one in 5,100 in the United Kingdom and one in 6,000 in Sweden.-APP