Minister for Health and Population Welfare, Sindh, Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho, along with the Population Welfare Department and Pathfinder held a press conference on Post Pregnancy Family Planning in Sindh.
The Minister said that this policy for Post Pregnancy Family Planning is better for the mother and child’s health and will drastically reduce maternal and child mortality.
The policy will include a complete package of wellness for the family which will include counselling for the parents (each district will have 6 counsellors), nutrition and supplements for the mother and child, and an increase in quality and access to health services.
Lady Health Workers (LHW’s), Community Midwives (CMW’s), health providers and a family member will all be involved in PPFP to allow for more informed decision making regarding family planning and parenthood.
Dr. Azra Pechuho remarked that it will be beneficial for the mother, family and community if there is some level of planning that goes into how many children should be had by a family, at what age, with how much gap between each child, etc.
The Minister stated that all departments of the government should ideally be involved in this integral part of government policy and implementation of family planning, but especially the education, information and security departments as well as the local governments.
She also thanked Pathfinder for the multiple meetings that they had with the Health Departmentand the Minister and also for helping in creating this policy that will allow FP2030 to reach its goals.
Dr. Talib Lashari, Technical Advisor Costed Implementation Plan Focal Person, FP2030, presented the policy which detailed how currently 31% of the women are utilising family planning services, whereas there is 18% of them who wish to avail these services without there being any awareness or advertisement for this service.
