Caring for pregnant women a growing challenge in quake area

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Islamabad (dpa) - More than 17,000 women due to give birth in the next two months in the earthquake-devastated areas of northern Pakistan are posing fresh challenges to relief efforts, officials said Wednesday.

While the region still mourns for the more than 86,000 killed by the October 8 earthquake, measures are being taken to prepare for the delivery of thousands of newborns.

"The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is helping local authorities by providing clean delivery kits, caesarean section kits, emergency supplies and much-needed surgical equipment as part of the U.N.'s coordinated response," a senior UNPA official told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Shahida Fazil described the situation as challenging, saying the UNFPA is trying to coordinate with local medical services and non- governmental organizations (NGOs) for assistance.

She warned that many of the pregnant women and adolescent girls were traumatized by the deadly quake, and expressed fears some 1,200 could face major complications because of "very limited" access to basic health services and emergency obstetric care.

Nine UNFPA mobile clinics offer medical assistance to affected communities in the worst hit areas of Northwestern Frontier Province (NWFP) and in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Fazil said UNFPA staff treated well over 10,000 patients and performed more than 80 deliveries last week in Kashmir and NWFP. "One woman with labour complications was flown by helicopter along with a woman doctor to the hospital in Muzaffarabad, where she safely delivered a healthy baby boy," she said.

She stated that a large number of women delivered babies after the quake with fractured bones and serious injuries.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Forces Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) Medical Platoon said they have treated 3,800 quake victims in Pakistan's administered Kashmir.

"We are able to save more lives because we go into the remote areas on foot, by road or by helicopter to treat people, rather than them trying to make an impossible journey to us," said Major Sean Blundell, Medical Platoon Commander.

Blundell said his team was also working with the Pakistani Red Crescent Society (PRCS) to re-establish the rural health centre in Gahri Dopatta in Kashmir.