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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Pakistan
Index
The average age of marriage for women was 19.8 between
1980
and 1990, and, with the rate of contraception use reaching
only
12 percent in 1992, many delivered their first child about
one
year later. Thus, nearly half of Pakistani women have at
least
one child before they complete their twentieth year. In
1988-90
only 70 percent of pregnant women received any prenatal
care; the
same proportion of births were attended by health workers.
A
study covering the years 1975 to 1990 found that 57
percent of
pregnant women were anemic (1975 to 1990) and that many
suffered
from vitamin deficiencies. In 1988 some 600 of every
100,000
deliveries resulted in the death of the mother. Among
women who
die between ages fifteen and forty-five, a significant
portion of
deaths are related to childbearing.
The inadequate health care and the malnutrition
suffered by
women are reflected in infant and child health statistics.
About
30 percent of babies born between 1985 and 1990 were of
low birth
weight. During 1992 ninety-nine of every 1,000 infants
died in
their first year of life. Mothers breast-feed for a median
of
twenty months, according to a 1986-90 survey, but
generally
withhold necessary supplementary foods until weaning. In
1990
approximately 42 percent of children under five years of
age were
underweight. In 1992 there were 3.7 million malnourished
children, and 652,000 died. Poor nutrition contributes
significantly to childhood morbidity and mortality.
Progress has been made despite these rather dismal
data. The
infant mortality rate dropped from 163 per 1,000 live
births in
1960 to ninety-nine per 1,000 in 1992. Immunization has
also
expanded rapidly in the recent past; 81 percent of infants
had
received the recommended vaccines in 1992. A network of
immunizations clinics--virtually free in most
places--exists in
urban areas and ensures that health workers are notified
of a
child's birth. Word of mouth and media attention, coupled
with
rural health clinics, seem to be responsible for the rapid
increase in immunization rates in rural areas. By 1992
about 85
percent of the population had access to oral rehydration
salts,
and oral rehydration therapy was expected to lower the
child
mortality.
Data as of April 1994
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