As women in both rural and urban areas of the country do not have adequate knowledge about reproductive health, the experts advise to raise awareness among them to reduce maternal mortality rate.
They also suggest changing mentality towards women and taking more care of pregnant mothers.
The experts say pregnancy is not a sickness. Yet, around 13 percent women aged between 15 years and 49 years die from delivery related complications. These deaths result mainly from negligence towards women. Such deaths are preventable, according to a report titled ‘Maternal Mortality and Health Services for Mothers in Bangladesh Study 2016: Preliminary Report’. Such studies were conducted earlier in 2001 and 2010.
In 2001, 20 percent cause of women’s death was pregnancy related while it decreased 14 percent in 2010 and after six years it came down to 13 percent.
The report showed that most women aged between 20 years and 34 years are dying from pregnancy related complications. Beside this, 24 percent women are dying of cancer and 23 percent of blood infection related diseases.
According to the study report of 2016 made by Bangladesh government, in every one lakh, a total of 196 pregnant mothers are dying every year. The report said currently the rate of delivery in health centers has increased to 47 percent (2016) which was 9 percent in 2001 and 23 percent in 2010.
Experts said all the government and non-government organisations should work together for providing necessary information of reproductive health to the adolescents for their healthy life.
They mentioned that proper knowledge and education on reproductive health could help adolescents boost their level of confidence in carrying out safe life.
Quamrun Nahar, a researcher on reproductive health, said conversations between older generation and the adolescents regarding sexuality are a rare case and to avoid complexities associated with adolescents’ physiological development, parents should discuss this issue very cordially with their children.
Dr Nazmun Nahar said, “People in our country feel embarrassed to discuss about sexual topics. There was a strong belief among guardians that adolescents would be encouraged to have sexual experiment because of the discussion.”
She said sometimes they feel adolescents are too young to understand the topic. Culture and religious beliefs are also barriers to talking about the issue, she added.
