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Women Health: Pregnancy: a womans burden?
March 08, 2009
By Fawad Ali Shah
KARACHI: Lying unconscious in bed, Zuhra, 17, is unaware of her surroundings at Civil Hospital Karachis Intensive Care Unit.
The heart rate monitor beeps as the crests and troughs on the screen show her heart rhythm. Not even out of her teens, the young girl has given birth to a baby girl. Doctors have told us that she is weak after delivering and it will take her a while to recover, her sister-in-law, Zareena tells Daily Times as she squats on the floor beside Zuhras bed. However, duty nurses regard the condition of both, the mother and the newborn, as critical.
Zuhra is one of the thousands of women who have never seen the inside of a health care centre or hospital. Their health suffers even more when they end up pregnant while unable to afford the basic healthcare costs during the crucial pregnancy period. Relying on traditional and home remedies, many a times these women end up in a worse physical and mental condition and this fate is passed on to their young children.
A woman is considered to play an important role in the development of her children but somehow things are different in reality as health issues mar their physical development.
Scholars claim that the mental growth, creativity and physical fitness of children are dependent on the behavior and physical health of mothers but no one cares about the health of a mother. In rural areas of Sindh, even bringing an infant female to a doctor for treatment is considered a taboo.
It is often said that there is a need to educate men about the importance of the health of female members, be it their mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, in order to ensure the happiness of their families.
Early child development is largely dependent on the physical health of a mother. An infants mental development, which at the end decides physical development, is decided by how well they are fed, what kind of environment they are given and on sensory stimulations.
Doctor Zulfiqar Bhutta at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) is an expert in women and child health. He says that 70 percent of pregnant women in Sindh suffer from iron deficiency called anemia. The ratio is pretty dangerous and if a mother herself is not physically fit, how will her child be? questions Bhutta.
He says that during pregnancy, which is an important phase in the development of a child, only one out of five women gets proper medical treatment while adding that nothing is being done to redress the issue.
Research in interior Sindh has shown that parents bring boys to health care centres while denying the same opportunity to their daughters. Right from the beginning, girls end up suffering from health problems and in response they then mistreat their own children, he adds.
AKUH Rector Dr Camer Vellani says, Medical research has proved that the human brain develops very early, even before birth and the first three years of life, when development is dependant on nutrition, sensory stimulation, health and the social environment, are considered a crucial growth period, in which it is the mother who takes care of the child. Vellani went on to say on to say that if we want a healthy nation we will have to educate and provide health facilities to women in our society so in turn they give birth to healthy citizens. Child nurture needs considerations well before conception, through pregnancy and childhood to enable development of the brain and ensure the child reaches full genetic potential, Vellani goes on to say.
As the world celebrates International Womens Day, Zuhra is running out of energy. While the doctors give her a blood transfusion, her newborn daughter cries at full pitch because of hunger, oblivious to her mothers agony. For now it seems, their fates are entwined as they stand in limbo.
March 08, 2009
By Fawad Ali Shah
KARACHI: Lying unconscious in bed, Zuhra, 17, is unaware of her surroundings at Civil Hospital Karachis Intensive Care Unit.
The heart rate monitor beeps as the crests and troughs on the screen show her heart rhythm. Not even out of her teens, the young girl has given birth to a baby girl. Doctors have told us that she is weak after delivering and it will take her a while to recover, her sister-in-law, Zareena tells Daily Times as she squats on the floor beside Zuhras bed. However, duty nurses regard the condition of both, the mother and the newborn, as critical.
Zuhra is one of the thousands of women who have never seen the inside of a health care centre or hospital. Their health suffers even more when they end up pregnant while unable to afford the basic healthcare costs during the crucial pregnancy period. Relying on traditional and home remedies, many a times these women end up in a worse physical and mental condition and this fate is passed on to their young children.
A woman is considered to play an important role in the development of her children but somehow things are different in reality as health issues mar their physical development.
Scholars claim that the mental growth, creativity and physical fitness of children are dependent on the behavior and physical health of mothers but no one cares about the health of a mother. In rural areas of Sindh, even bringing an infant female to a doctor for treatment is considered a taboo.
It is often said that there is a need to educate men about the importance of the health of female members, be it their mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, in order to ensure the happiness of their families.
Early child development is largely dependent on the physical health of a mother. An infants mental development, which at the end decides physical development, is decided by how well they are fed, what kind of environment they are given and on sensory stimulations.
Doctor Zulfiqar Bhutta at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) is an expert in women and child health. He says that 70 percent of pregnant women in Sindh suffer from iron deficiency called anemia. The ratio is pretty dangerous and if a mother herself is not physically fit, how will her child be? questions Bhutta.
He says that during pregnancy, which is an important phase in the development of a child, only one out of five women gets proper medical treatment while adding that nothing is being done to redress the issue.
Research in interior Sindh has shown that parents bring boys to health care centres while denying the same opportunity to their daughters. Right from the beginning, girls end up suffering from health problems and in response they then mistreat their own children, he adds.
AKUH Rector Dr Camer Vellani says, Medical research has proved that the human brain develops very early, even before birth and the first three years of life, when development is dependant on nutrition, sensory stimulation, health and the social environment, are considered a crucial growth period, in which it is the mother who takes care of the child. Vellani went on to say on to say that if we want a healthy nation we will have to educate and provide health facilities to women in our society so in turn they give birth to healthy citizens. Child nurture needs considerations well before conception, through pregnancy and childhood to enable development of the brain and ensure the child reaches full genetic potential, Vellani goes on to say.
As the world celebrates International Womens Day, Zuhra is running out of energy. While the doctors give her a blood transfusion, her newborn daughter cries at full pitch because of hunger, oblivious to her mothers agony. For now it seems, their fates are entwined as they stand in limbo.
