SUKKUR, Pakistan: A renowned health expert Dr Shehla Wali has said that about 30,000 women die every year in Pakistan from pregnancy-related complications.
Their death does not seem to bother society, especially the people at the helm of affairs.
While talking to APP, here on Thursday, she said that most women do not die of diseases, but because of indifference of the society, that has yet to make a decision that women`s lives are worth saving.
She said that health is a gift of Almighty Allah and people should avoid self medication unless advised by doctors.
Giving some figures on maternal death, a famous gynecologist, informed that one woman dies every 30 minutes and around 375,000 suffer from pregnancy-related complications annually in Pakistan.
She further said that most of these women died due to excessive bleeding, high blood pressure and infections, their deaths were actually caused by a number of socio-economic factors, she said, adding that the factors included poverty, low status of women in society and a lack of education.
According to Dr Shehla that our women are highly anaemic and repeated pregnancies, most of the time without their consent, adversely affect their health status, adding that most poor women deliver at homes in unhygienic conditions at the hands of unskilled birth attendants. These practices add to maternal mortality and morbidity, she added.
No woman should die while producing another life and every pregnancy should be a wanted one, and this could be done only through proper family planning, she said.
To a question, she said the solution to the many diseases plaguing the country lies in universal primary education, alleviation of poverty and empowerment of women.
She also censured the media for not highlighting the real public issues properly and instead focusing on the so-called political wrangling.
Source: APP
