Maternal Health in Bangladesh

Poor maternal health and poverty are directly2. Most of the pregnant women in Bangladesh are
interrelated. Bangladesh being one of the poorunder nourished which severely affects the child and
countries in the world has worse maternal mortalitycontributes to the high mortality rate. Pregnant
rate in South Asia. It has been estimated that everywoman and her family need to be aware about the
year 21,000 women die during pregnancy or whilenecessary levels of nutrition.
giving birth to a child. Most of these deaths occur due3. Improve the body mass index of the women who
to hemorrhage, anemia, hypertension and obstructedare expecting by making them aware of it. The body
labor. Absence of medication for pregnant womanmass index of majority of the pregnant woman in
and delay in receiving the appropriate mode ofBangladesh are lower than the minimum required
transportation is also a major contributing factor towhich leads to complications in pregnancy.
poor maternal health.4. Poor maternal health is also a result of
One of the major reasons for poor maternal health issocioeconomic condition of the women in the
the lack of skilled birth attendants which accounts forcountry. Making people aware of the harm of
just 13% of all deliveries in Bangladesh. Anotherteenage pregnancy which can prove to be fatal both
major reason for the poor is the fact that femalefor the child as well as the mother.
children are not adequately nourished since their birth5.Encouraging people to maintain gap between their
and generally conceive early in life. The resultant poorchildren. Frequent pregnancy among women in
health and low birth weight has been carrying on forBangladesh has been one of the primary reasons for
centuries.the poor state health of the mother.
The biggest challenge for the government andBy creating a support system within various
nongovernmental organizations is how to improvecommunities be it in villages or certain pockets of the
maternal health condition of women in Bangladesh.urban areas can improve the maternal health. This
The high levels of illiteracy among women acts as acould be aimed at making the entire community take
major roadblock in all developmental projects. Somesteps towards the improvement of maternal health.
of the required steps needed in to improve this issueThese campaigns run by certain organizations has
in Bangladesh are:yielded substantial results in the places where the
1. Educating women folk in all stages of pregnancycampaign has been carried out. Encouraged by this
right from early days of conceiving to proper deliveryrecent success it is now looking to spread the
of the child. They need to be educated on the basiccampaign to other parts of the country in the near
precautions to be taken during pregnancy.future.