Ranu and her other family members reside at a tiny room of the house. There is a small bed on the corner of the house. Sitting on the bed, Ranu is keeping clothes inside a basket after folding those, while her husband Rahmat Mian is checking the papers on vaccines of their girl child. After keeping the clothes at the basket, Ranu counted the dates and told her husband that their baby needs one more vaccine to complete its full dose.
Both the wife and husband are very much aware about their child. They regularly visit ‘Daktar Apa’ (female physician) of their nearby community clinic when Ranu became pregnant. The couple of this lower middle income family did not forget to follow all rules starting from pregnant-time healthcare services to post-delivery period. Rahmat, a grocery shop owner of Baroipara village under Shailakupa upazila in Jhenidah, stayed always careful for keeping her wife and child healthy.
Following the footsteps of Ranu, many people of that village have become health conscious and 21-year-old Parul among them.
After getting pregnant, Parul is staying her mother’s house. Her father-in-law’s house took the decision for the convenience of Parul so that she can receive services from the health centre adjacent to their home.
Parul’s family is now very elated with their cute baby Redwan. While feeding breast milk to her child sitting on a mat on the barandah (corridor), she reminisced the time of born of Redwan. Parul was then seven-month pregnant. She felt unwell at that time due to weakness and swelling of her hands and legs.
She was diagnosed with some physical problems when she rushed to the upazila health complex. But after following the advices of the doctor, Parul recovered from the problems and gave birth to a healthy child.
The health conscious Parul always takes care of baby and herself too. She regularly visits the community clinic with the child for giving vaccines apart from receiving post-delivery checkup of herself.
But most of the mothers of the country are not much conscious about health like Ranu and Parul.
Laily is such an example. She came to Panty Community Clinic with her one-year-old child who was suffering from severe cold. The on-duty doctor advised Laily to take her child to Kushtia Sadar Hospital fast after noticing his respiratory problems.
But Laily stunned when she came to know that her child was diagnosed with pneumonia. However, the physician assured her that the child will be cured soon as the disease is not so much complicated.
“Their is nothing to worry and the child will be recovered from it if they take care properly and give him medicines as per the advice,” the doctor told Laily.
The health conditions of the mother’s collapse due to early marriages in rural areas and giving birth to children frequently. As a result, they have to face painful situation like death because of serious illness. So special attention is needed for reproductive health services.
While talking about the issue, Farida Parveen Akhi, a director of a private clinic in Jhenidah, said health consciousness could save the people from many big dangers.
“It’s possible to lead a healthy life if anyone takes the advices from the physicians timely and it also reduces the risk of death. So, it’s essential to give importance to issues of primary healthcare services,” she observed.
Akhi said the women suffer from various diseases like calcium deficiency and hormone problem. But most of them do not receive treatment of these diseases, she said.
Paediatrician of Dhaka Child Hospital Dr Quamrul Hasan said the government is trying their best to reach woman and child healthcare services to the country’s remote areas. “But it’s possible to remain healthy if everybody is a little bit conscious about it,” he said.
Hasan said particularly the mothers will have to stay careful about their children otherwise their kids could suffer from various diseases like pneumonia, adding they (mothers) also need to know what types of food their children will have to be given.
He said the government health officials are working round the clock to reach quality medicare services to the people’s doorsteps at free of cost.
