PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Paediatrics Association (PPA) has expressed concern over lack of facilities for neonatal health services and urged the government to take steps for controlling avoidable deaths.

“Each day 800 women and about 8,000 newborn die from complications during pregnancy, childbirth and other neonatal causes globally,” Prof Amin Jan Gandapur, president of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter of PPA, told a two-day workshop at the Khyber Teaching Hospital on Friday. In addition, around 7,000 women experience a stillbirth, he said.

“In Pakistan, the infant mortality is 69 per 1,000 and neonatal mortality 55 per 1,000 live births,” he said.

Prof Gandapur said that 80 per cent of newborn deaths resulted from three preventable and treatable causes like inability to breath at birth, prematurity and neonatal infections, which could be managed effectively by providing optimum neonatal care, resuscitation and basic and advanced life support in time.

The workshop entitled “Neonatal Life Support and Basic Ventilation” was organised by PPA in collaboration with the Children Hospital, Lahore, to improve skills and knowledge of doctors, and it was attended by trainee doctors and health care providers.

There has been a remarkable progress in reducing the number of child deaths throughout the world, but still a lot of children die in countries like Pakistan due to preventable causes.

He also called for strengthening and investing in mother and newborn care during labour, birth and the first day and first week of life particularly. This way every birth will be celebrated and women, babies and children will survive, thrive and reach their full potential.

The workshop was inaugurated by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Deputy Speaker Prof Mehr Taj Roghani who appreciated the event and stressed on continuing such activities in future to train health care providers to improve proper neonatal resuscitation and ventilation care to newborn babies to decrease neonatal mortality rate.

Prof Roghani, a former head of paediatric department at KTH, assured the participants that the provincial government would fully support such activities.

Prof Nadeem Khawar, medical director of KTH and head of the paediatric department, welcomed the participants and lauded the PPA’s efforts. He also said that the hospital would support the academic activities of health professionals to strengthen the neonatal services, especially in KP. He felt the need to train doctors in the care of newborn and prevent the newborn deaths in the province.

The facilitators of the workshop included senior paediatricians and neonatologists who had come from Children Hospital, Lahore, and CMH, Rawalpindi. They included Dr Khwaja Ahmad, Dr Irfan Waheed, Dr Zeeshan Ahmed, Dr Shahid Mehmood, Dr Talal Waqar and Dr Palwasha Rehman.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2015