In an age of scientific and medical advancement, most of the causes of maternal mortality and morbidity should be avoidable.
For a Pakistani woman, the risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes is 1-in-80 compared to 1-in-4,085 in industrialized countries. Such high maternal mortality is indicative of neglect of women’s health, and especially alarming is the high rate of stillbirths in this country.
Poverty, high levels of population growth, rapid urbanization, inadequate social support, poor quality of information and travel systems, lack of opportunities in rural areas, and infectious and deficiency diseases contribute to Pakistan’s high rate of stillbirths.
Upon closer inspection, the real reasons for such low survival rates are decidedly more substantive.
In Pakistan, 32 percent of the babies are born with low weight, 36 percent do not have access to medical facilities, 58 percent receive no antibiotic treatment if they contract pneumonia, and 62 percent have no access to ORS for diarrhea. Obesity and non-communicable diseases — notably diabetes and hypertension — are listed as reasons for at least 10 percent of all stillbirths. Malaria is the cause of 8 percent, while 7.7 percent are associated with syphilis.
In 2015, Pakistan’s Rs 4.3 trillion annual budget, earmarked Rs 781 billion for defense, Rs 250 billion for road infrastructure, Rs 112 billion for energy, Rs 78 billion for railways and Rs 30.4 billion for the atomic energy commission
While Rs.50 billion has been allocated for a single metro bus project in Islamabad, only Rs 20.8 billion has been earmarked for health issues. Ofthat number,Rs 12.8 billion will get dumped into non-development expenditures and Rs 8 billion were left for the human condition.
Worldwide, 24.7 babies were born dead in 2000, compared to 18.4 stillbirths per 1000 in 2015. Seemingly, stillbirth rates have decreased slightly. But at present rates of progress–2 percent per year – Pakistan tops the list of stillbirths in the worldwith a rate of 43 per 1000. All things being equal, it would take 130 more years before a pregnant woman in Pakistan has the same chance of her baby being born alive asdoes a woman in Denmark.
According to The Lancet, 2.6 million babies are stillborn every year. Of that number, 1.2 million begin labour alive only to die before birth. In the last three months of pregnancy, 7,300 women around the world suffer the loss of their babies every day. And 98 percent of the stillbirths are in low-income countries. The medical journal concludes that two-thirds of these stillbirths are contributed by Pakistan, India,Nigeria, China, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic ofthe Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Tanzania, and Niger.
