PESHAWAR, Nov 26: Health experts on Saturday underlined the need for improvement of mother and child care facilities in rural areas to cut high mortality rate.

“We can apply brakes on avoidable deaths of mothers and children, especially infants, by strengthening health facilities at community level,” said Dr Tehniyat, associate professor of gynecology and obstetrics department at the Kuwait Teaching Hospital.

She was addressing midwives from flood-hit Nowshera and Charsadda districts during a function organised on completion of their refresher course organised by Prime Foundation with funding of Canada-based International Development and Relief Foundation.Dr Tehniyat said the training course would enhance skills of midwives and thus, efficiently handling mother and child diseases in the areas devastated by the 2010 flashfloods. She said the trainees would help mothers combat complications during and after pregnancy.

Director (project support unit) Prime Foundation Dr Saeed Anwar said the people were still prone to water-borne diseases due to poor sanitation and use of contaminated water.

He said the training would improve patient care at the primary and secondary levels of the areas where health facilities had been severely damaged by flooding.

Dr Saeed proposed a refresher course for the capacity building of lady health visitors and community midwives in Charsadda and Nowshera districts. He outlined the humanitarian and development initiatives of his foundation.

Dr Farhat Rehana Malik, reproductive health coordinator of the United Nations’ Population Agency (UNFPA), praised Prime Foundation for building the capacity of midwives through refresher courses and training workshops, and expressed the hope that the training course would contribute towards improving safe motherhood in the flood-affected districts of Charsadda and Nowshera. She said UNFPA would provide support for such efforts and recruit talented trainees.