Summary Pakistan ranked third amongst the countries having highest stillbirths.
Dunya News Report (Humaira Sajid)
PARIS- An international weekly medical journal has ranked Pakistan third amongst the countries having highest stillbirths. Pakistan has the worst rate — 43 out of 1,000 pregnancies end in stillbirths — according to studies published in British health journal- The Lancet.
Despite being ranked third among the countries having highest stillbirths, it remains a neglected priority in Pakistan. The Lancet, international weekly medical journal, said Pakistan has 43.1 stillbirths per 1,000 births, worse than African countries like Somalia, Nigeria, Togo and Chad. India had highest stillbirth in 2015 with 592,000, leaving China, Pakistan and Nigeria behind, the journal revealed.
For the purposes of the study, stillbirths were counted as fetuses lost during the final three-month trimester, or after 28 weeks of pregnancy. Deaths before this cutoff are termed miscarriages.
The study found that prolonged pregnancy was the main cause of stillbirths, contributing 14 per cent to the overall results. Next in line were maternal health problems. Nutrition, lifestyle factors such as obesity or smoking, and non-infectious diseases like diabetes, cancers or cardiovascular problems, each accounted for about 10 percent of stillbirths. Malaria infection accounted for about eight percent of stillbirths and syphilis 7.7 percent, the analysis showed.
An estimated 6.7 percent of stillbirths were attributed to the expectant mother being older than 35, and 4.7 percent to eclampsia - a serious condition of pregnancy that can cause seizure-inducing high blood pressure.
In Pakistan, factors such as poverty, inflation, illiteracy, unemployment, lack of proper hygiene, substandard health facilities, clean water, sanitation systems, conflicts, economic turmoil, climate change and disasters are contributing to food insecurity. It is also especially due to lack of interest by the government and health care providing authorities. Food security is a recognized health problem in Pakistan and plays a significant role in the country’s elevated child morbidity and mortality rates.
According to World Health Organization (WHO) report, women are found more susceptible to micronutrient deficiency. Among the upper most micronutrient deficiency disorders are pertain to Iron, calcium, iodine, vitamin-A, vitamin-D and Zinc, some of the most important nutrients in fetus development.
In 2011 about 16% of pregnant women were reported to have been malnourished. Among them 51% of pregnant women were anemic, 47.6 % of zinc deficiency, 46 % agonized with vitamin A deficiency and 68.9 % susceptible to deficiency of vitamin D. While non-pregnant women were less vulnerable to malnutrition revealing that 50.4 % of were anemic, 41.3 % was suffering from vitamin A deficiency and 66.8 % was allied to vitamin D deficiency. In case of mother, these values stand at: Anemia 51%, lack of vitamin A 42%, iron deficiency anemia 37%, vitamin D deficiency 67%, zinc deficiency 41% and calcium deficiency 52%.
Pakistan’s HDI value for 2014 is 0.538 which put the country in the low human development category positioning it at 147 out of 188 countries and territories. Although improving maternal and neonatal health appears as core element in the government s agenda on development, the evidence from Pakistan Demographic Household Survey (2007) reveals that the gap between the health indicators for the poor women and children and those better off is widening. Despite considerable initiatives undertaken over decades (for example, Lady Health Workers Programme - 1993 to date, Women Health Project - 2000-05, National Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health Programme 2006 to date), progress with respect to maternal and neonatal health indicators remains poor. It is, thus, not surprising that Pakistan has been categorized among the countries that are clearly off track in their global commitments on maternal and child health to achieve the targets set under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.
According to the National Nutrition Survey in 2011, the Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rate in the province of Baluchistan was recorded as much as (16.1%), Punjab (13.7%) and in Sindh (17.5%) and the Severely Acute Malnutrition (SAM) is 6.6 %. The GAM rate in Tharparkar District is even higher at 22.7 % and the Chronic Malnutrition is 45.9 %. These statistics present a serious situation in marginalized women belonging to underprivileged sectors of the society. Subsequently, this calls for a swift action by the government by investing in health system in order to reach out to such women from deprived segments of society and facilitate their access to quality maternal health services and fulfillment of nutrients.
