KARACHI, April 29: Dr. Sher Shah said on Thursday that 72 mothers die and 1200 get disabled during pregnancy everyday in Pakistan. He was speaking at a prize distribution ceremony of a poster design contest on Maternal Morbidity held by Pakistan National Forum on Women's Health & Pakistan Medical Association here at PMA House.
The Contest was announced in October, 2003, and more than 300 students from different art schools, colleges and universities participated from all over the country. Dr. Sher Shah said that maternal morbidity and disabilities happen due to complications in pregnancy and delivery, not reaching hospital in time and not providing necessary health facilities that could be prevented by precautionary measures and awareness.
Fatima Surayya Bajia in her speech appreciated the efforts of students, showing miseries of mothers in posters. She said that mother is a gift of Almighty Allah whose loss cannot be repaired with anything. Mother is the best friend, she said.
Dr. Haseeb Alam of PMA said that precaution is necessary during pregnancy to save maternal deaths. Pregnancy is not taken seriously by family members, but it needs VIP treatment, he added. -PPI
Our Staff Reporter adds:
The experts were alarmed at the number of deaths during pregnancies, and said that it owing to lack of adequate medical facilities, maternal deaths were on the rise. The speakers lamented that every year over 30,000 women die while another over 375,000 women become disabled owing to the pregnancy-related complications.
They said out of every 100,000 pregnancies in Sweden and Japan, hardly one woman dies due to complications while here the number of the women dying due to complications runs into hundreds for each 100,000 pregnancies.
They said that this high number of maternal deaths and morbidity speaks volumes about the priority being given to the women's health by the government. They said that to highlight the issue, the PNFWH had organized a countrywide poster contest on the subject of maternal morbidity.
Over 300 artists had sent their entries and the posters showed that the artists were well aware of the issue. Aisha Minhas, Habib-ur-Rehman Soomro and Wasif Asghar were the judges.
Selected posters were displayed at an exhibition that was being held at the PMA House for the last couple of days. Later, Fatima Surayya Bajiya distributed prizes among the winners.
Maliha Basheer and Zareena Talwani were declared first and second in the category of art school students. Asif Ilyas, Arshad Siddiqui and Ammarah Khan were declared first, second and third respectively in the category of college and university students. Consolation prizes were also announced for 12 contestants.
Earlier, Dr. Qaisar Sajjad of PMA delivered welcome address and admired the talent of students. Dr. Ayesha also spoke. The result of the poster contest was prepared by a committee, comprising three artists, including Dr. Wasif Asghar, Dr Ayesha Minhas and Habeeb Soomro.