UNFPA Helps Displaced Pakistani Mothers Deliver Safely

SAMARBAGH, North West Frontier Province, Pakistan — Bibi Lena, uprooted by fighting in the Bajaur tribal area, gave birth safely to her ninth child here on 19 February. It was the local hospital’s first delivery by an internally displaced person (IDP) since UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, stepped up support to the health facility as part of its ongoing response to the area’s humanitarian emergency.

No fee was charged. To show their gratitude, Bibi and her husband, Yaqoob, insisted that the hospital staff name their new daughter. They chose Janat, meaning 'Heaven'.

Nearly 116,000 IDPs have sought reproductive health care and more than 1,100 have given birth at UNFPA-supported facilities in north-western Pakistan since the conflict between government forces and militants intensified in November 2008. Last year, when fighting displaced some 2 million people from the Swat Valley, UNFPA established nine service delivery points for the displaced, including fully equipped birthing centres in five IDP camps. (See press release and video.)

After the Government completed its military operation in Swat, most camp residents went home and UNFPA’s support shifted to services for the returnees in Swat and Lower Dir Districts.

As a result of a new offensive that started last October in South Waziristan, more than 840,000 people are now benefiting from UNFPA’s services, including IDPs, host population and others. Most the IDPs fled their homes with virtually nothing; a majority have found shelter with host families. This traumatic dislocation has put pregnant women at special risk, exacerbating the region’s already severe lack of prenatal care, assisted delivery and emergency obstetric care. Some 25,000 women are expected to give birth in the next year; almost 4,000 of them will need surgery to address potentially life-threatening complications.

In response to the current crisis, UNFPA is working closely with federal, provincial and district authorities and non-governmental organizations to provide comprehensive reproductive health services at seven government health facilities and one IDP camp labour room. The Fund has also distributed 15,000 personal hygiene kits to displaced women and 567 baby kits to new mothers.

Bibi Lena was happy about the free service she received at the Samarbagh hospital in Lower Dir. Five of her previous eight children were born at home with help only from a traditional birth attendant, while the three others were delivered at the Bajaur hospital at a cost of around $40 each.

As part of the UN-led consolidated Pakistan Humanitarian Response Plan 2010, UNFPA hopes to raise $2 million to provide maternal, neonatal and child health care services, basic hygiene supplies and psychosocial support in IDP camps and nearby medical facilities in several districts of North-West Frontier Province.

For more information, contact:

in Islamabad, Mohammad Ajmal, tel.?+92 300 500 1724;? majmal@un.org.pk
in Bangkok, William A. Ryan, mobile +66 89 897 6984; ryanw@unfpa.org