BSS, Dhaka :
There is no end to the ordeal of pregnant mothers in Jhalakathi district. They have to go through sufferings from the time of conceiving to giving birth to a child. The district has only one gynecologist who has been posted to Sadar Hospital.
But there is no gynecologist in upazila health complexes. As a result, the pregnant mothers cannot talk about their problems and they cannot know what they will do. It pushes the mothers and children into a state of risk.
This picture is from a special report of a national daily. The picture in the entire remote coastal region is almost like that in Jhalakathi. It can be surmised that the pregnant mothers in the remote hilly areas are also being deprived of better healthcare.
But it is different in the plain lands. The expectant mothers here get medical services from public hospitals and health centres but the services are not adequate.
The private hospitals, clinics and NGOs render healthcare services to the pregnant mothers side by side with the government health facilities. But those who are financially solvent can avail of these services.
Kohinoor Begum came to Mawna Al Hera Medical Centre under Sripur upazila of Gazipur district. A resident of Artopa village of the upazila, Kohinoor arrived here for a caesarean delivery. Her husband Feroz said he had got assurance that he could take her wife to a specialist physician for consultancy before delivery. These facilities are inadequate at the upazila level.
Dr Shariful Islam, a physician of the medical centre, said the mothers come to these medical centres after delivery because of scantiness of facilities including doctors at upazila government hospitals.
However, Civil Surgeon of Gazipur Dr Shah Alam spelled out a number of issues on maternal health services.
He said: “Gazipur is densely populated as it is an industrial district.
Hundreds of garment factories have been set up here and most of their workers are women. So, special attention is being given to the maternal health services. Two kinds of services are being rendered during and after pregnancy. There is a gynecological consultant in every upazila hospital who extend all sorts of cooperation.
Though the government has been working comprehensively on maternal health to achieve millennium development goals, 70,300 pregnant mothers die in a year in Bangladesh.
