WUNRN
Pakistan - Displacement Spells
Danger for Pregnant Women
In
the ancient city of Bannu, which now houses the largest number of refugees,
some 40,000 pregnant women are facing up to their ultimate fear: a lack of
hospitals, doctors and basic medical supplies.
-
Imagine traveling for almost an entire day in the blistering sun, carrying all
your possessions with you. Imagine fleeing in the middle of the night as
airstrikes reduce your village to rubble. Imagine arriving in a makeshift
refugee camp where there is no running water, no bathrooms and hardly any food.
Now imagine making that journey as a pregnant woman.
In
northern
When the army began conducting air raids on the 11,585-square-km North Waziristan Agency on Jun. 15, residents were forced to flee – most of them on foot – to the neighbouring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, where they have now taken refuge in sprawling IDP camps.
“In
Officials
estimate the number of displaced at just over 580,000, of which half are women.
In the ancient city of Bannu,
which now houses the largest number of refugees, some 40,000 pregnant women are
facing up to their ultimate fear: a lack of hospitals, doctors and basic
medical supplies.
For 30-year-old Tajdara Bibi, a
mother of three, these fears became a reality in June, when she had to flee her
home in
The journey wore her down, and
by the time she was admitted to the maternity hospital in Bannu, the doctors
were too late: she delivered a stillborn baby a few hours later.
Muhammad Sarwar, who attended
to Bibi, told IPS that an extreme shortage of female doctors has put pregnant
women on a knife’s edge.
“At least four women died of
pregnancy-related complications on the way to Bannu, while 20 others had
miscarriages at the hospital,” he said.
“We have only four female
doctors in the whole district, who are required to provide treatment to all the
women,” he added.
With thousands of women now
clamouring for care, the province’s limited healthcare services are falling
short, sometimes with disastrous consequences.
Gul Rehman, a 44-year-old
shopkeeper, is still reeling from a recent tragedy. He told IPS his wife went
into labour prematurely during the arduous journey to Bannu.
“We could not find transport so
we had to walk. When we finally reached the hospital, we were kept waiting…
there were no doctors readily available.
“After 10 hours, they finally
operated on my wife – but the baby was already dead,” he explained. Aside from
the trauma of losing their child, the couple is also struggling to cope with
the wife’s health condition, which has deteriorated rapidly after the
stillbirth.
According to Fawad Khan, Health
Cluster and Emergency Coordinator for the World Health Organisation (WHO) in
The WHO is currently assisting
the KP health department to “prevent unnecessary deaths”, the official told
IPS, adding that 73 percent of displaced women and children in Bannu are in
“desperate need of care.”
Some 30 percent of pregnant
women among IDPs are at risk of delivery-related complications, a situation
that could easily be addressed by upgrading existing facilities. There is also
an urgent need for gynaecologists to provide antenatal and postnatal care, he
stated.
Twelve
health centres have already been established to tackle malnutrition among women
and children in the camps. Without proper nourishment, officials fear pregnant
women will face additional complications during birth, and low birth-weight
among newborns could create additional challenges for health workers.
“Four percent of the total
displaced women are pregnant and need immediate attention,” Abdul Waheed, KP’s
director-general of health, told IPS, adding that some 20 basic health units
have already been strengthened to take on those most in need.
Still, the crisis has reached
proportions that even seasoned officials are scarcely able to comprehend.
Waheed explained that Bannu has never before had to host such a large
population of homeless people, and is struggling to cope.
Prior to the recent wave of
refugees from
“We are sending doctors from
teaching hospitals in
The United Nations Children’s
Fund (UNICEF) and the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) have joined the WHO in
supporting the
Part of the problem, according
to Ali Ahmed, KP’s focal person for IDPs, is that few medical professionals are
keen to take up posts in the militancy-infested region. For years the Taliban
have operated with impunity in these federal areas, hiding out along the
mountainous border with
The military’s
counter-insurgency programme was launched in a bid to finally wipe out
extremist elements that fled
But until the region regains a
sense of normalcy, it will be hard to lure professionals here, officials say.
Despite being offered lucrative packages, doctors have refused to take up
posts, even temporarily, in Bannu.
The government is looking to
fill this gap by appointing 10 doctors, including five female doctors, to the
newly renovated Women and
The city’s other two category
‘B’ hospitals, the Khalifa Gul Nawaz Teaching Hospital (KGTH) and the District
Headquarters Teaching Hospital, suffer similar setbacks, while the arrival of
the IDPs has more than tripled the number of patients demanding services, Ahmed
said.
Three rural health centres in
close proximity to the refugee camps, as well as 34 basic health units, have
received an injection of funds and resources, and 20 assistant nutritional
officers have been deployed to cater to the needs of 41 percent of affected
children, he told IPS.
But far greater efforts will be
needed to tackle the crisis, which is compounding an already bleak picture of
maternal health in
Fayyaz Ali, a public health expert here in KP, told IPS, “In Pakistan, 350 women die per 100,000 live births from pregnancy-related complications. In FATA, the situation is extremely bad, with 500 dying for every 100,000 live births. The situation warrants urgent attention.”
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________