‘75% Rohingya babies born in unsafe condition’

Save the Children, an aid agency, has claimed that around 75 percent Rohingya babies are born in unsafe and unhygienic makeshift shelters, putting lives of both mother and children at a great risk.

The aid agency today published the assessment report based on the facts and findings of its primary health care cretres from July 2018 to April 2019.

Around 400 babies were born in a community of some 20,000 people. Of them, only 119 newborns were safely delivered in properly-equipped health centres while rest of the babies were born at the unsafe and unhygienic makeshift shelters, the report said.

Hundreds of mothers and their newborns in the refugee camps may die this year if they are denied of proper maternal healthcare, Save the Children said in its assessment.

A joint report of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that every 100,000 live births, 179 mothers die from preventable causes like pregnancy and childbirth.

The UNFPA and the CDC study also found that half percent of the total death caused by the maternal mortality take place unsafe and unhygienic makeshift shelters.

The reports also found that some families in the refugee camps do not seek service from any healthcare centres as they fear of sterilisation or infanticide that they faced in Myanmar.

In this context, the health service providers need to earn trust of people in this community so that the expectant mothers can get the care according to their necessity, the report said.