AP
Rajanpur, October 17
The first five months of Shakeela Bibi’s pregnancy were smooth. She picked out a name, Uthman, made him clothes and furniture. She had regular checkups at home and access to medicine. Then an ultrasound revealed the baby was upside down. The doctor told Bibi to take extra care and rest.
And then came this summer’s massive floods. Bibi’s home in the southern Pakistani city of Rajanpur was inundated.
When she spoke to The Associated Press last month, she was living in a camp for displaced families. With her due date approaching, she was afraid over the possibility of a breech birth with almost no health care accessible.
“What happens if my health deteriorates suddenly?” Shakeela said. She has a blood deficiency and sometimes low blood pressure, but she said she can’t have a proper diet in the camp. “I’ve been in a camp for two months, sleeping on the ground, and this is making my situation worse.”
Pregnant women are struggling to get care after Pakistan’s unprecedented flooding, which inundated a third of the country at its height and drove millions from their homes.
There are at least 6.1 lakh pregnant women in flood-affected areas, according to the Population Council, a US-based reproductive health organisation.
Many live in tent camps for the displaced, or try to make it on their own with their families in flood-wrecked villages and towns.
Women have lost access to health services after more than 1,500 health facilities and large stretches of roads were destroyed. More than 1.3 lakh pregnant women need urgent care, with some 2,000 a day giving birth mostly in unsafe conditions, according to the United Nations.
Experts fear an increase in infant mortality or health complications for mothers or children in a country that already has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Asia.
They also warn of dangerous, long-term repercussions for women, such as an increase in child marriage and unwanted pregnancies because of the disruptions in the lives and livelihoods of families.
Rasheed Ahmed, a humanitarian analyst at the UN Population Fund, said the health system was already poor before, and he warned now of “death, disability, and disease” if the health of pregnant women is ignored.
Perveen Bibi, an 18-year-old who is five months pregnant and not related to Shakeela, said the lack of health facilities in the camp forced her to travel to a private clinic and pay for an ultrasound and checkup.
In the camps, families of five, seven or more eat, sleep, and spend their days and nights in one tent, sometimes with just one bed between them.
Most sleep on floor mats. Some survivors only have the clothes they fled in and rely on donations.
Outdoor taps are used for washing clothes, washing dishes, and bathing. The pregnant women said there were shortages of clean water and soap. They were scared of infections because of open defecation at the camps. A bathroom was set up, but it has no roof and tents surround it.
Amid the devastation, organisations and individuals are doing what they can — the UNFPA is delivering supplies for new-born babies and safe delivery kits across four flood-hit provinces.
Ahmed from the UNFPA says pregnant women have different needs than the rest of the displaced population, needs that aren’t being met by state efforts.
The health crisis triggered by the flooding will reverberate among women because it will take long to rebuild health facilities and restore family planning, according to Saima Bashir from the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
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