From malnutrition to maternal and child mortality, Balochistan is among the worst places in the world to be a mother in.  One in four women had no prenatal care at all.

Prenatal care varies by region as about 30% of women in Balochistan received prenatal care from a skilled provider compared to 94% in Islamabad.

A woman and her newborn baby girl died at the District Headquarter (DHQ) Hospital Nushki on Sunday, with their relatives blaming the ‘untrained and negligent’ hospital staff for the deaths.According to doctors at the DHQ hospital, the pregnant woman was brought to the hospital in the early hours of Sunday in a critical condition and died due to excessive loss of blood.

The relatives of the deceased protested against the hospital administration over the “non-availability of a senior female gynecologist”. According to recent UN agency for population (UNFPA) State of the World Population Report 2017,

countries such as Bangladesh, Laos, East Timor and Indonesia are seen as being likely to bring their Maternal Mortality Ratios (MMRs) below 70 deaths per 100,000 by the 2030 deadline, in accordance with the UN Sustainable Goals (SDGs).

But others like Pakistan join the list of those that would not able to meet this deadline including Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Myanmar, Cambodia and the Philippines. Despite government’s health emergency, the doctors’ private practice has not stopped notwithstanding the non-practicing allowances being paid to them, the situation in the public hospitals remains as ever pathetic on all fronts whereas the private hospitals’ business is booming.

In case of Balochistan, the Government had stopped giving importance to the issues pertaining to family planning and it was not linked with the wider health issues of the province. If we integrate the services of health and the Family planning, we can save tens of thousands lives of mother and child both ensuring a healthy population of younger people to give our economic development a big boost.

For a country, whose leaders capitalize over its youth potential and upcoming youth dividend, its malnutrition statistics are worse than most sub-Saharan countries.

All the outlets of the Provincial Health Department in remote corners of the province should be further strengthened to deal with wider population or demographic issues. A healthy and a skilled population will guarantee for achieving our goals for economic development. More funds, services and skilled people should be encouraged to go and serve their own people in remote rural areas.

Such a service should be mandatory for young doctors and their degrees should be linked with serving the rural population at least from three to five years. There are some very basic recommendations that the government could ensure through media coverage and its health system; especially by using its Lady Health Workers (LHW) to explain to patients’ optimal practices. Political commitment should be shown to systematically address malnutrition and invest in nutrition interventions.

This should be combined with clear focused and practical strategies to combat high levels of child malnutrition. With the 18th amendment, health has been devolved down to the provinces creating stakeholder coordination issues which combined with a general lack of importance given to nutrition from policymakers. Clear nutrition policy and national nutritional strategic plans need to be set up for addressing malnutrition in vulnerable groups.

The government of Balochistan has worked in collaboration with international agencies and NGOs and implemented initiatives in sporadic fashion which overall have had little impact on indicators.There is no answer of this question that why Balochistan government is not taking a serious step to functional the program and waiting for the many children’s death.