Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.21
By Gulgiz Muradova – Trend:
Azerbaijan needs to adopt a state program to provide women with medicaments of iron, folic acid and enriched flour during pregnancy and in the post-natal period, Dr. Farid Babayev, Assistant Representative of UNFPA Azerbaijan Country Office told Trend.
He noted that the global challenges facing all workers of maternal and child healthcare services are the reduction of maternal and child mortality, improvement of the quality of medical care for newborns, reduction of the morbidity and mortality, and protection of health of adolescents and young people.
"The early antenatal coverage of pregnant women, that is, registration before 12 weeks, makes up 74.1 percent according to data for 2015. The country lacks effective incentives for pregnant women to promote their early registration at antenatal care services. Due to a shortage of staff in remote regions of the Republic, difficulties arise with the involvement of specialists of various profiles in the pre-divisional preparation for the family, especially women with extragenital diseases, "Babayev said.
He further added that the analysis of the number of premature births reveals a general rising tendency of this indicator. In 2005-2014, the figure gradually increased from 1.8 to 2.7 percent, and the increase in the indicator in 2015 to 3.7 percent is due to the transition on new criteria of live birth.
"At the same time, there is a decrease in the level of home births in the republic, whereas in 2008 the share of giving births at home was 2.5 percent, in 2015 it is 0.9 percent. The cases of home births are recorded mainly in remote villages, and there is a positive trend towards a decrease in this indicator," Babayev said.
He believes to get a clearer and more detailed picture of the preventable causes of maternal mortality in Azerbaijan, it is necessary to improve the collection of information and implement the WHO methodology for the analysis of critical cases in obstetrics.
Geographical location of remote regions of the Republic, especially in the winter season, creates certain problems in transportation, as well as in providing timely emergency assistance to pregnant women, parturients, mothers and newborns. In the same localities, there are difficulties in collecting statistical data, analyzing and reporting on reproductive health.