HEALTH
Childbirth deaths at crisis level in South
A two-storey wooden building at Ban Yang Daeng School in Pattani’s Kokphoe district is razed after an arson attack on Monday night in the latest strife in the province.
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Women dying at a rate that exceeds the poorest 3rd-world countries: Red Cross
The rate of women dying in childbirth in the three southernmost provinces was the highest in the Kingdom and even higher than in Ethiopia, a top doctor said yesterday. Dr Manoj Mukati, assistant director of the Relief and Community Health Bureau at the Thai Red Cross Society, said one of the critical unnoticed crises in Thailand was the ratio of women dying in childbirth in the far South. He was speaking at the launch of the "World Disasters Report 2006 - Focus on neglected crises" by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). The neglected problems it lists includes hunger in Malawi, dangers to mothers in Nepal and the death of African boat migrants trying to reach Europe. Manoj said that at present nine out of every 100 women in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat who gave birth would die - vastly more than other regions in Thailand. The ratio was similar to that in Nepal and even higher than that of famine-plagued Ethiopia, one of the least-developed countries in the world. Eight out of 100 Ethiopian women die when giving birth, Manoj said. He said the cause was the local people's beliefs and culture. "They go to a midwife because they do not want to be treated by male doctors, and there aren't many female doctors in the hospitals," he said, adding that delivery at a midwife's house would not be as hygienic. Also, it was forbidden for Muslims to use birth control, the director of Yala Hospital, Wattana Wattanayakorn, said. Muslim women have more children then women in other regions in Thailand. Several attempts had been made to improve the situation. All hospitals in the far South provided training for midwives in the entire region, while offering incentives for women to give birth in hospital, Wattana said. "We also encourage them to bring mothers who might have some abnormality to the hospital," he said. The Thai Red Cross also planned to provide training to female students so that they could provide pregnancy-related services.
Sopaporn Kurz The Nation
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