Balochistan: Mother and newborn baby die during delivery in Dera Bugti

QUETTA: A Baloch woman and her newborn baby died of excessive bleeding during delivery due to the lack of a lady doctor in Balochistan’s gas-rich Dera Bugti district on Tuesday.

According to details, Shah Moor Mandwani Rahija’s wife was taken to a nearby Lady Health Visitor (LHV) in the Koho area for the delivery of her child.  

The concerned LHV, however, apologised that she was unable to treat the woman as her condition was critical and recommended that she should be taken to the district headquarter hospital.

The heirs took the woman to the District Headquarters Hospital but there was no lady medical officer or gynaecologist to help her deliver her baby safely due to which both mother and baby lost their lives.

The family sources said that a male doctor on duty has confirmed the death of the mother and her newborn baby after the initial check-up.

There has been no gynaecologist in district Dera Bugti for the past many years and the death of Shah Moor Bugti’s wife is the fourth such incident just in past three months in which mothers and their newborns have lost their lives.

The tragic incident has caused a wave of anger among the residents of the area.

This also raises questions about the performance of the Health Department and shows the incompetence of the “elected representatives” of the area that there is no gynaecologist in Dera Bugti, especially, in district Head Quarter Hospital.

It is pertinent to mention that recently Pakistan’s widely read Dawn Newspaper reported that Balochistan has the highest mortality rate in the world.

Abdul Malik Achakzai in a detailed report in July 2017 explained that Balochistan’s rate is nearly four times the global maternal mortality rate of 216 per 100,000, according to UNICEF figures for 2015.