Displacement Spells Danger for Pregnant Women in Pakistan

A doctor examines a woman in an IDP camp in Bannu, a city in Pakistan’s northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, where over 40,000 pregnant women are at risk due to a lack of maternal health services. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPSBy Ashfaq YusufzaiPESHAWAR, Pakistan, Oct 8 2014 (IPS)Imagine traveling for almost an entire day in the blistering sun, carrying all your possessions with you. Imagine fleeing in the middle of the night as airstrikes reduce your village to rubble. Imagine arriving in a makeshift refugee camp where there is no running water, no bathrooms and hardly any food. Now imagine making that journey as a pregnant woman.In northern Pakistan, a military campaign aimed at ridding the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Taliban militants has led to a humanitarian crisis for hundreds of thousands of civilians.When the army began conducting air raids on the 11,585-square-km North Waziristan Agency on Jun. 15, residents were forced to flee – most of them on foot – to the neighbouring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, where they have now taken refuge in sprawling IDP camps.“In Pakistan, 350 women die per 100,000 live births from pregnancy-related complications. In FATA, the situation is extremely bad, with 500 women dying for every 100,000 live births. The situation warrants urgent attention.” -- Fayyaz Ali, a public health expert in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinceOfficials estimate the number of displaced at just over 580,000, of which half ...

Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - October 8, 2014 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Ashfaq Yusufzai Tags: Active Citizens Aid Armed Conflicts Asia-Pacific Civil Society Development & Aid Editors' Choice Featured Gender Headlines Health Human Rights Humanitarian Emergencies Migration & Refugees Population Poverty & MDGs Projects Source Type: news