500,000 Pregnant Women giving birth in a horrendous flood!

[ensho]

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52686


500,000 Pregnant Women at Risk in Pakistan Floods


Aid groups and U.N. agencies are raising the alarm over the vulnerability of pregnant women and babies in flood ravaged Pakistan.


-snip-

"We know that mothers are giving birth in flimsy or crowded shelters, steps away from stagnant water and debris," said Sonia Kush, director of emergency preparedness and response at Save the Children. "And we know the dangers for newborns are extreme - the first hours and days of a child’s life in the developing world are the riskiest, even without the added complications posed by a disaster of this scope. Displacement, increased impoverishment, crowded living conditions, disease and infection are further imperilling the lives of mothers and their newborn babies in Pakistan."

Save the Children says that 100,000 women are due to give birth in the next month and according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), approximately 500,000 flood-affected pregnant women are currently in their second or third trimesters. Nearly 500,000 newborns are expected to be born in the coming half year.

"We must ensure the health and safety of all these women and their babies," U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Pakistan Martin Mogwanja said. "This disaster has already affected almost 18 million people. We don’t want it to also affect half a million babies who are not born yet."

-snip-

But UNFPA says that it has encountered challenges in recruiting women health workers, especially female gynaecologists, in the flood-affected areas.
-snip-
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this is staggering! giving birth is a life threatening event weather you get top medical aid or none at all.

but giving birth during and in a flood is mind boggling. as an alumni of giving birth I cringe at the thought.

500,000 women birthing in a flood. 20,000 babies waiting for surgery (in Iraq)

women and babies don't do well in floods and wars.

[OhioChick]

1. How awful.

I read that it's so bad over there that people are eating grass. :(

[Turborama]

2. MSF expands operations in provinces hit by more flooding

Hopefully they'll be helping out with the conditions your article emphasizes...

Date Published: 03/09/2010


An MSF distribution point in a hospital in Charsadda, Pakistan.
Photo by Ton Koene.

MSF is expanding operations to the south of Punjab and in hard-hit Sindh province, where millions of people have been displaced by fresh flooding. MSF has identified groups of people in both provinces who have been displaced and who have received almost no assistance up to the present, and is starting new activities to respond to their needs. In Sukkur, in northern Sindh, MSF has opened two mobile clinics devoted to nutrition. Work on a water plant there has been completed, and since its completion Monday 30th August, 80,000 litres per day have been extracted and delivered to people who need it. Tents, hygiene kits, cooking sets, tarpaulins and jerry cans have also been distributed around Sukkur and in camps in Hyderabad in Sindh.

In Punjab, increases in diarrhoea and malaria cases have been reported, and MSF is responding in kind. Diarrhoeal Treatment Centres are being expanded where necessary and more staff has been dispatched from other projects in the north to reinforce the response. In Rajanpur district of Punjab, a worrying number of malnourished children under the age of five have been seen; because of this fact, MSF is considering opening up a new project in this area. Where settlements of displaced people have been identified, MSF will assist them with kits and tents.

MSF is carrying out medical treatment and consultations in mobile clinics across the country. The most common afflictions reported are acute watery diarrhoea, skin infections, respiratory infections, and malnutrition. Cases of malaria are being reported increasingly. MSF is concerned at reports of diarrhoea-related deaths in camps and continues to operate Diarrhoeal Treatment Clinics around the country.

MSF is still providing treatment for cases of severe malnutrition, both in its support of Intensive Therapeutic Feeding Centres and in its mobile clinics, in parts of the country- Nasirabad district in Baluchistan, Sukkur in Sindh Province, and both Kot Addu and Rajanpur in Punjab. Children who are severely malnourished are provided therapeutic food supplements and receive follow-up examinations after a week of treatment. In Baluchistan, MSF will be focussing more of its efforts on antenatal and post-natal nutrition and care. Pregnant women are being offered antenatal care in supplies like medications and safe delivery kits, as well as high energy biscuits.

MSF has handed over management of some facilities to the ministry of health so that resources can be diverted to regions where medical needs have not been met. As more people return home and access to health care services is restored, MSF will be scaling back activities in mobile clinics and in emergency rooms in some places, but is preparing for influxes of patients in others. Efforts at emergency preparedness, like setting up Diarrhoea Treatment Centres in the case of outbreaks, will continue.

There are still people who have not received any kind of assistance so far. Some settlements of displaced people have no access to drinkable water and limited access to healthcare. In many established camps, needs remain high and tensions mount amongst the populations who are frequently desperate for help. There are still groups of people who are actively seeking shelter, especially in Punjab and Sindh; MSF will continue to distribute items such as tents, cooking sets, tarpaulins, where these needs are greatest. Villages will also be assessed in coming weeks for the distribution of reconstruction kits to help thousands of families on their return home.

The hygienic conditions in camps and settlements are often poor and, with view to reducing the prevalence of diarrhoeal diseases, priority is being given to providing clean water and improving sanitation in them. Clean water provision is still a major problem for MSF and other organisations working in the country. Tankers, filter plants and distribution points continue to supply drinkable water, but the needs are still great. Latrines are being built in some camps where they were absent before, like Mangoli camp in Baluchistan. Well-cleaning programmes are being implemented in certain areas. Health educators have also been dispatched to camps and more hygiene kits and jerry cans will be distributed in the coming weeks.


Since the beginning of the floods in Pakistan MSF has:

Distributed 24,834 non-food item kits
Distributed 6,801 tents
Performed 27,151 medical consultations
Set up 7 diarrhoea treatment centres
Continuously conducted 12 mobile clinics
Distributed 718,000 litres of clean, safe water per day
Built 258 latrines
Installed 11 points for the administration of oral rehydration salts

152 international staff are working alongside 1,279 Pakistani staff in MSF’s existing and flood response programmes in Pakistan.

From: http://www.msf.org.uk/articledetail.aspx?fId=pakistanupdatesept3_20100903

Link to MSF in my sig...

[OhioChick]

5. Glad to hear that some aid is making it through....

They still need so much more, though.

[WinkyDink]

3. And the Taliban murder doctors.

[Rhiannon12866]

4. K&R. Horrible situation...

The scope of this suffering is unfarhomable... ;(

[Turborama]

6. A historical humanitarian crisis caused by a gigantic natural disaster

One that should be getting the same attention and reaction the famine in Ethiopia had in the 1980s.

As well as the scope of the suffering, I also find the reasons why people seem to be largely ignoring this unmitigated disaster and its consequences unfathomable.

[Rhiannon12866]

8. I saw a report on CNN last night with Dr. Sanjay Gupta...

He was actually in Pakistan, reporting on the horrific health crisis that this natural disaster has caused. So maybe the news is getting out... :(

[Name removed]

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