Plans for Mother and Child Week reviewed

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Plans for Mother and Child Week reviewed

Government of Pakistan in collaboration with UNICEF organised a Review and Planning Meeting for the upcoming April round of the Mother and Child Week. The objectives of the meeting were to review the achievements of the November 2011 round of the Mother and Child Week; to plan for the April 2012 round in the light of lessons learnt; to hold a discussion on the way forward with a special focus on deworming in pregnancy, improving quality, reaching uncovered areas, integration with other partners, sustainability of the activity and finalisation of dates of the upcoming Mother and Child Week.

It was attended by the Director Generals Health of all provinces, Managers of the Lady Health Workers Programme, Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health Programme and the Expanded Programme on Immunisation as well as partner UN agencies, representatives of civil society organisations and other key stakeholders.

UNICEF has been supporting the National Programme for Family Planning and Primary Health Care to celebrate Mother and Child Weeks since 2007, a bi-annual activity (1st week in April and 2nd in October) focusing on two major killer diseases of children, diarrhoea and pneumonia. The intervention has proven extremely beneficial and has been incorporated in the PC-1 of the National Programme for Family Planning and Primary Health Care.

Each year, Pakistan witnesses preventable deaths of 432,000 children under five years of age, and 20,000 mothers due to causes related to pregnancy and child birth. Among under-five deaths, two-thirds are in the newborn period (first 28 days of life) and the remaining are largely due to pneumonia (13%) and diarrhoea (11%).

Diarrhoea is a seasonal calamity (number of cases start rising in April and peak around July and August each year). About 70,000 children in Pakistan die due to diarrhoea every year. Most of these precious lives can be saved by simple knowledge about prevention and promotion of some key measures at home and healthcare-seeking practices.

To address the above issues by raising awareness and strengthening the health system to become more responsive, the National Programme for Family Planning and Primary Health Care, in collaboration with Unicef, initiated celebration of the Mother and Child Week as a pilot in 2 districts of Punjab. The initiative was so successful that it was scaled up nationwide in 2010.

The series of activities during the week include public awareness activities at the village and union council levels, supplemented by immunization and deworming for children, tetanus toxoid vaccination for pregnant mothers, refresher trainings for health workers, and strengthened public health systems to ensure that Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) and other essential supplies are available and correctly used.

Each pregnant woman will also receive counselling on recognition of danger signs among mothers and newborns, the importance of at least four ANC visits, delivery by a skilled birth attendant, post natal care, early initiation of breast feeding, exclusive breastfeeding, immunisation of the child and optimal birth spacing.

2017-04-26T12:35:18+00:00