National conference on 'birth spacing saves lives' held

The Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Planning Division will identify sustainable means to meet future requirements of the health sector, said Minister for Health Makhdoom Shahabuddin.
While addressing the participants of the national conference on Birth Spacing Saves Lives: Delivery of Family Planning Services by the Health Care Providers here on Tuesday, he said the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey of 2006-07 has shown that the unmet need for contraceptive uptake has remained persistently high and has in fact risen.
Robin Raphael, US Senior Co-ordinator for Economic And Development Assistance and former US Ambassador to Tunisia, DG Health, Professor Dr Rashid Jooma, senior officials of Ministry of Health and Ministry of Population and the concerned departments were present on the occasion.
Shahabuddin said that increase in contraceptive use and reduction in fertility through wider access to family planning services holds the key to moving towards our goals and improving the health of our mothers and children. He said that the Ministry of Health recognises the high prevalence of per-natal, infant and child mortality and maternal deaths that can be related to the high fertility rates that are prevalent in Pakistan.
"The health sector also recognises that birth spacing is critical to countering these indicators and of equal importance is our national commitment to meeting the MDG 4 and 5 goals that we are committed to meeting by 2015", he added.
The Health Minister said that while the need for this critical area of intervention has been long recognised, defining the modalities has been delayed and he is convinced that this beginning will have an appropriate outcome. The Ministry of Health is cognisant that timing and spacing of pregnancies is important for the health of mothers and children.
"I understand that global research including that in Pakistan has demonstrated that pregnancies occurring within six months of a live birth increase manifold the risk of miscarriage, new born deaths, maternal deaths and low birth weight", he further maintained. The minister said that the risk of miscarriage alone increase by 2 1/2 times, which underscores the need to highlight and address these issues. High maternal mortality and neonatal mortality are also causes of deep concern.
Needless to say the health of a nation is among the highest priorities of the governments and I intend moving towards a better, enhanced and effective health delivery system in the shortest possible time. He appreciated the work and support of the partner organisations in meeting the contraceptive needs and the appropriate infrastructure of warehouse facilities and most critically the training of service providers that will provide the impetus for ensuring quality services that are pivotal to this process.
Speaking on the occasion Robin Raphel said that the recent demographic and health survey which gathered the first-ever national data on maternal mortality in Pakistan found that the maternal mortality ratio is an alarming 276 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.
"Yet, as the latest demographic and health survey illustrates, there has been less progress in many areas than we had hoped", she showed her concern. She said that the US government pledges to work with other international donors to support the government of Pakistan in its quest to make progress toward the achievement of its goals in health sector.
She said that a recent analysis of how improved family planning could help Pakistan achieve its Millennium Development Goals indicated that the cumulative costs savings to the Pakistani education sector alone would be about 94 million dollars by 2015. This same study showed that addressing the unmet need could avert an estimated 23,000 maternal deaths and 1.1 million child deaths in Pakistan by the MDG target date of 2015.