Postpartum family planning method decreases maternal mortality
Adopting a right and longtime postpartum family planning method decreases maternal mortality rate, public health experts, at a workshop in the capital, said Monday.
About 92% of women want to adopt such methods but most of them fail due to lack of availability, they added.
"We have to do work collectively to save mothers' lives. If our mothers can be kept well, the whole nation will be well," said Saiful Hasan Badal, secretary of the Medical Education and Family Welfare division of the health ministry.
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"If couples adopt family planning methods and wait two years before planning for another baby, maternal death will decrease by 30% and child death by 10%," he told the event organised at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel under a Jhpiego-Bangladesh project, titled Accelerating access to Postpartum Family Planning in Bangladesh.
Only 0.7% of women used to take postpartum family planning methods earlier. The rate has now increased to at 12% in the Jhpiego-Bangladesh's project areas as it made a significant effort to raise awareness.
The Jhpiego-Bangladesh worked on the project from January 2019 to December 2022 in the slum areas in Dhaka and 20 hospital centres in Feni, Chandpur, Brahmanbaria and Moulvibazar districts.
Speakers said that the Jhpiego-Bangladesh contributed widely in the field of training to doctors and nurses, developing apps, creating awareness among the people through various programmes, and providing health services to postpartum mothers and kids.
Director General of Family Planning Shahan Ara Banu presided over the workshop. Jhpiego-Bangladesh Country Lead Dr Setara Rahman, Program Manager Mohammad Tariqul Islam, Family Planning Department Line Director Dr Nurun Nahar Begum, were present, among others, in the event.
