Pakistan currently ranks 26th in the world for under-5 child mortality rate that has fallen from 141 in 1990 to 89 in 2012, though less than the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 4 of 46 by 2015. Besides, Pakistan could not meet the MDGs 4 and 5, of reducing under-5 child mortality and improving maternal health by 2015, by a large margin.
This was the outcome of an international conference on "Maternal, Fetal and Neonatal Medicine", held at the Aga Khan University. It was organised by AKU's Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health in collaboration with the Pakistan Paediatric Association's (Centre) Neonatology Group. Those who participated in the discussion in the conference included Dr Sohail Salat, Associate Professor, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, AKU and Convenor, Neonatology Group, PPA (Centre); Dr Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, Director, Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health, AKU.
Deploring that Pakistan's mother and new-born indicators are amongst the lowest in South Asia - lower than Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives and Nepal -, they opined that Pakistan could make much more progress towards promoting the health of pregnant women and new-borns, and meeting the Sustainable Development Goal on health, by strengthening policy, targeting specific health system's bottlenecks and investing in improving access to quality health services.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Sohail Salat said that every year, 8,000 Pakistani women continue to die either from pregnancy complications or in childbirth, and one mother's life is lost every 40 minutes. Elaborating on the subject, he said the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) may have declined from 521 in 1990 to 332 in 2012, but it is still far behind the proposed MDG's target of 130 by 2015. Besides, there are wide variations between provinces, with the MMR being the lowest in the Punjab at 227 and highest in Balochistan at 785 deaths.
"It is universally agreed that no country can make progress without improving its health indices if there is no substantial and meaningful improvement in maternal, fetal and neonatal health," he said, and added that ending preventable child deaths requires a focus on a healthy start.
Dr Zulfiqar A. Bhutta said globally close to three million new-borns die annually, accounting for 44 per cent of deaths in children under age five, and an additional 2.6m babies are stillborn each year, with almost half of the deaths occurring during labour. Worse, new-born deaths are a major contributor to under-5 mortality with around half of deaths occurring in the first month of life.
"The ultimate goal is to facilitate the adoption of policies that will bring an end to preventable deaths among all women and new-borns and to bring about a more prosperous and sustainable future. We have to look at inter-sectoral linkages and address social determinants of health if we are to make a difference to the lives of the poorest of the poor," Dr Bhutta added.
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