Orientation on preventing post-delivery haemorrhage

3 November 2009, 17:00 PM

A Correspondent, Cox's Bazar

EngenderHealth, a leading international NGO working in Bangladesh since 1974 on reproductive health and family planning, organised an orientation and planning meeting on community-based misoprostol use to prevent post-partum haemorrhage, serious bleeding after delivery, in Zila Parishad Hall Room here on Monday. This project will be implemented in five upazilas--Sadar, Chakaria, Maheshkhali, Kutubdia and Pekua--of Cox's Bazar district by the Directorate General of Health services (DGHS) and the Directorate General of Family Planning with technical assistance from EngenderHealth under the Mayer Hashi Project with funding from USAID Bangladesh, says a press release. The objective of the project is to prevent serious post-partum haemorrhage during home-deliveries through misoprostol-use, distributed by government and NGO workers. Based on the experience in Cox's Bazar, recommendations will be given for scaling-up the interventions throughout Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, 85 percent of deliveries occur at home, and women risk serious complications or even death from post-partum haemorrhage due to limited access to life-saving emergency care in health facilities. Studies in a range of countries, including India, have shown that misoprostol tablets can be used for prevention and treatment of post-partum haemorrhage during home delivery. The district orientation and planning meeting was chaired by Dr Barendra Nath Mandal, Director, PHC and Line Director, ESD, Directorate General of Health Services. Shaikh Altaf Ali, Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, was the chief guest.