Mizzima News

New Delhi - Women in eastern Burma only have limited access to maternal-health care during pregnancy and most women expecting, suffer poor nutrition, anemia, and malaria, raising the risk of complications during pregnancy, a new report said.

The report by researchers at the US-based John Hopkins University and Burmese Medical Association, said human rights violations in eastern Burma particularly in communities in Karen, Karenni, Shan and Mon states has a direct impact on women receiving maternal health care during pregnancy.

The report, published on Monday in the US medical journal PLoS Medicine, said forced relocation in the region tripled the risk of women developing anemia and greatly decreased their chances of receiving any antenatal care.

According to the report, researchers surveyed some 3,000 women in eastern Burma and found out that nearly 90 per cent of the women went in for delivery at home for their last baby, while a skilled attendant was present at only one in 20 births and only a third of these women had antenatal care.

One third of the women received postnatal care and only a third said they had access to effective contraceptives, as a result more than half the women were anemic and 7.2 per cent were infected with malaria parasites, said researchers adding that many women also showed signs of poor nutrition.

"Finally, human rights violations were widely reported by the women," the researchers said.

The report said, while Burma's national average of maternal mortality rate is at 360 per 100,000 live births, maternal health is even worse in Shan, Karenni, Karen and Mon states in eastern Burma where ethnic conflicts and enforced village relocations have internally displaced more than half a million people.

As a result, the maternal mortality rate in communities in eastern Burma is at about 1000 per 100,000 live births, the report added.

The survey is conducted in an effort to improve access to life-saving maternal health interventions in eastern Burma, through the Mobile Obstetric Maternal Health Workers (MOM) Project, which is set up in 2005 by Burmese community-based health organizations, the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health and Human Rights and the Global Health Access Program in the USA, and the Mae Tao Clinic.

As part of the project, local health workers from 12 communities in eastern Burma received training in antenatal care, emergency obstetrics, blood transfusion, and family planning at the Mae Tao Clinic, in Mea Sot in Thailand.

Researchers said reports from the survey clearly show that "considerable political, financial, and human resources will be needed to improve maternal health in this region."