Mother & Child Week launched in KPK

PESHAWAR: Mother & Child Week formally launched in Peshawar on Saturday in 24 districts and three IDP camps of the province with a target to provide health care and awareness services to a population of 12.2 million including 1,825,660 under-five children and 413,636 pregnant women.

Those who spoke on the occasion included Provincial Secretary Health Capt (R) Munir Azam ,Dr.Sharif Ahmed Khan ,Director General Health Services KP , Dr. Ihsanullah Turabi, Provincial Coordinator LHW Programme and Dr.Abdul Jamil, Health and Nutrition Specialist, UNICEF. Public Health specialists, health care provider and Lady Health Workers attended the ceremony.

The Mother & Child Week is being observed from November 14 to 19, 2011 is focus on improving the alarming status of mothers and children in the province.

It is pertinent to note that each year Pakistan witnesses 432,000 preventable deaths of children of under-five years and 20,000 deaths of mothers due to pregnancy related causes. Among the under-five deaths, two-thirds occur in first 28 days of life while the remaining deaths occur due to pneumonia and diarrhea.

It is worth mentioning that 13pc deaths occur due to pneumonia and 11pc due to diarrhea. Similarly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province 100 of every 1,000 children die before their fifth birthday. As many as 76 children die in the first year of life due to seasonal and preventable diseases like diarrhea and pneumonia. Most of these precious lives can be saved by simple knowledge about prevention and promotion of some key measures at home and health care seeking practices.

Pakistan has committed in Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of reducing under-five year deaths to 52 per 1,000 births, and under-one years deaths to 40 per 1,000 by 2015. In order to achieve this goal, Mother and Child weeks are observed twice a year with focused to create awareness and prevent pneumonia and diarrhea effectively.

National Programme for Family Planning and Primary Health Care, Ministry of Health is launching the Mother & Child Week, from 14-19 November 2011.

The partners include National Programmes on EPI, National Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Program and UNICEF. This is one of the key activity by the Department of Health in 24 districts, three camps including Jalozai, Benazir and Togh Sarai camp for internally displaced persons in the province with focused awareness and service delivery on Maternal, New born and Child Health Care.

Due to coming winter season, Mother and Child Week will focus on Pneumonia prevention and management with awareness raising campaign to promote care practices at the household level to avoid the disease.

The week long campaign supported by UNICEF will provide a model for improving health and nutrition status of mother and child health in Pakistan.

The series of activities during the week beside public awareness activities at village and union council level will include immunization and de-worming for children and tetanus toxoid vaccination for pregnant mothers.

Each pregnant woman will also receive counseling on recognition of dangerous signs among mothers and newborn. Like-wise the importance of at least four visits before delivery, delivery by a skilled birth attendant, post natal care, early initiation of breast feeding, exclusive breast feeding, immunization of the child and optimal birth spacing will focus pneumonia and 11pc due to diarrhea during the week.

This week will be focused on nationwide awareness campaign with focused service delivery Total of 13,288 Lady Health Workers and 565 Lady Health Supervisors will be involved in the activity together with vaccinators and health care providers from 735 health facilities.