Minister for Law Excise & Taxation, Finance Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman has said that focus of the government is upon primary and protective healthcare so that to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), to achieve the targets the community midwifery homes will be established at the far flung areas of the province to provide basic health facilities to child & mother and to look after their health as well as to minimize the maternal & neonatal mortality rate during the child birth.
While talking to various delegations, regarding Mother & Child Health Week, Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman observed that Ist hour early initiation and exclusive breastfeeding for six months can reduce annual infant mortality rate up to 22 percent in the province. He said that exclusive breastfeeding could save more than one million babies each year globally adding that infant mortality rate in Punjab could also be reduced up to 41,800. He said that Punjab government was appointing gynecologists in all districts of the province and had focused on the health of infants and mothers and for this purpose free delivery services were being provided to the pregnant women at rural health centers. He said that it was the basic rights of the infants to get mild from their mothers and depriving them was equal to violation of basic human rights. He said that mothers should breastfeed their infants eight times or more during a day and the babies should also be given health food supplements. He said that the mothers' milk was more digestive for the infants and a complete health diet for them and a weapon against the diseases of infants like diarrhea and acute respiratory infections.
Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman said that government is using all available resources for providing better healthcare facilities to the people especially mother & child in the province and the priority areas of the targets are rural folk. He said that skilled birth attendants, LHVs and LHWs are being appointed at health centers because the MMR in LHWs covered area is 147/100,000 live births, compared 300 to 350/100,000 to uncovered areas, therefore, the LHWs, LHVs. He said that at present under five mortality rate present is 94/1000 and it will be reduced 45 till 2015(MDGs Target), new born mortality rate is 54/1000 and it would be reduced upto 25 by year 2015, whereas, infant mortality rate is 77/1000 which would be reduced 40. He told that maternal mortality ratio 350-500/100000 which would be reduced 140 uptill 2015. He told that 20 percent birth deliveries are attended by skilled birth attendant and this ratio would be increased more than 90 percent by 2015
Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman said that 7.5 lakh Pakistani children die of various diseases every year while a large number of children is crippled and by administering simple treatment through immunization we can save the precious lives. He said that government has reserved Rs.2 billion to achieve the millennium development goals(MDGs) whereas government has also provided Rs.121.80 billion for health sector to provide the state-of-the-art healthcare facilities to the masses in the province.