In neighbouring Pakistan, fertility rate is high at 3.3; and so is maternal mortality ratio at 140. Almost 30% births are not attended by skilled health personnel, Unintended pregnancy rate per 1,000 women is 71. 18% of the girls get married by the age of 18 years.
Professor Aziz-un-Nisa Abbasi, Dean and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Department of Ayub Medical College of Abbottabad, and President of Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Pakistan said that contraceptive prevalence rate has stagnated and family planning uptake is dismally low even in urban areas at 35% and 5-10% in rural areas.
According to Prof Aziz-un-Nisa Abbasi, "Oral contraceptive pills and intra-uterine contraceptive devices are not popular, as most of the women are not educated enough to take them. But nowadays we are promoting postpartum and post-abortion family planning. We mostly advocate for postpartum long-acting reversible contraception procedures and also sterilisation in case of caesarean deliveries (after 3-4 deliveries)".
80-90% pregnancies in Pakistan are unplanned. Abortion is not legalised and termination of pregnancy is allowed only on medical grounds if there is any abnormality in the unborn child.
Prof Abbasi told CNS (Citizen News Service) that "the spontaneous abortion rate is 10-15% but termination of pregnancy rate is very low. However, women do take Misoprostol (that is available over the counter) to terminate pregnancy. But very often they return to us with complications. They also get abortions done clandestinely through midwives, nurses and even doctors. Also, while women are screened for Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C, enough HIV screening in them is not done. STI prevalence is not high, perhaps due to adherence to religious rules and also because of under testing. We do syndromic management of STIs as we cannot screen for infections like Chlamydia due to resource constraints."
Worrying situation of women's health in Papua New Guinea
Fertility rate in Papua New Guinea is high at 3.4 and maternal mortality ratio is also very high at 145. 27% of the girls get married before the age of 18 and the unintended pregnancy rate per 1,000 women is 80.
With less than 40% of pregnant women having access to supervised birthing care, the situation in Papua New Guinea is poor indeed. Professor Glen Mola, Head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at Port Moresby General Hospital of Papua New Guinea, and senior office bearer of Papua New Guinea Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, spoke to CNS.
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