DHS in the News
Journalists worldwide write about MEASURE DHS results. The dissemination of DHS, SPA and HIV data is often widely covered by media in survey countries, but journalists also use MEASURE DHS data throughout the year as background information for their stories, or to compare health and development indicators across countries. These data are also used by journalists in the United States and other developed countries, as it is considered the gold standard of population, health and nutrition data. Below are some examples of recent news coverage. Please note: The links below are to websites outside MEASURE DHS.
By ARTHUR OKWEMBA
The Daily Nation (Kenya)
Human rights and reproductive health organisations are urging
Parliament to create a law to criminalise forced sex in marriages.
They
further want MPs to sensitise their constituents on the need to engage
in consensual sex.
In Marital Rape and Its Impact: A
Policy Brief for the Kenyan Members of Parliament, 2010, the
African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC) says forced sex
within marriage is rape, a criminal offence which must be punished.
“Marital rape is one of the
under-reported violent crimes because it is socially tolerated. Some
abused women are afraid to report because they rely financially on their
husbands for their upkeep and children’s maintenance, while others fear
the humiliation,” the brief says.
The push for the
law follows admission of rape by women who participated in the Kenya
Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS), 2008-09, whose results were
released recently.
At least 14 per cent of the married
women surveyed said they had been forced to have sex by current
husbands and partners in the year preceding the study. Another 37 per
cent said they had been subjected to sexual violence by current husbands
or partners.
By JEFF OTIENO
Daily Nation (Kenya)
More than half of Kenyan women still give birth at
home without the help of qualified attendants. According to the Kenya
Demographic and Health Survey 2008/2009, 56 per cent of women give birth
at home.
The deliveries, also referred to as home
births, are more common in rural areas than in towns. The survey says 63
per cent of births in rural areas are delivered at home, compared to 25
per cent in towns.
The
high figures have brought to the fore the reality on the ground,
contradicting pronouncements by public officials on achievements in
reproductive health. According to the Economic Survey 2010, health
centres increased significantly by 8.2 per cent from 6,190 in 2008 to
6,696 last year.
Most of the new facilities were
constructed through constituency development fund efforts, which
comprises 2.5 per cent of the national Budget. Rift Valley, also the
country’s largest province, has the highest number of facilities
(1,732), housing slightly over a quarter of the country’s total health
centres (25.9 per cent), followed by Central Province 1,251 or 18.7 per
cent, Eastern (1,106), Coast (770), Nyanza (773), Western (426), Nairobi
(406) and North Eastern 232.
Mr Christopher Omolo, a
senior manager at the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, said the
common reason given by women for choosing to give birth at home was the
long distance to health centres. The problem was common in arid and
semi-arid lands, where health facilities are poorly equipped and are far
from homes.
“Despite the distance, some of the women
who gave birth at home did not think a clinic was necessary,” said Mr
Omolo. Apart from building more health centres, the official said there
is a need for medical workers to educate women on the importance of
giving birth in them.
Only 44 per cent of births are
assisted by a doctor, nurse or midwife, 28 per cent by traditional birth
attendants, and 21 per cent by untrained relatives or friends. “Seven
per cent of women giving birth receive assistance from no one,” added Mr
Omolo. The figures are worrying, given that pre- and post-natal care is
critical to women’s health.
Also worrying is that half
of women who give birth in the country do not seek post-natal care. It
is one of the reasons the maternal mortality ratio has increased from
414 per 100,000 live births to 488 despite the government’s commitment
to the fifth Millennium Development Goal, which aims at reducing the
ratio by 75 per cent between 1990 and 2015.
Available online: http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Most%20women%20deliver%20at%20home/-/1056/941420/-/ntf1mbz/-/
WASHINGTON,
DC, 11 June 2010 (IRIN) - Despite slow progress in increasing the
number of skilled birth attendants, Bangladesh has made enormous
reductions in maternal mortality by improving girls' education.
The maternal mortality rate (MMR) more than halved in less than a
decade, from 724 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1990, to 338 per
100,000 in 2008, according to a recent study published in British
medical journal The
Lancet. By comparison, the 2008 MMR in India was 254 deaths per
100,000 live births, 47 in Thailand and 7 in Japan.
Read full article: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89451
TIME
By
Mridu Khullar
Relph / New Delhi
While American women celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Pill this
month, women in India are embracing a different method of contraception.
By the end of the day, more than 100 million will have taken a birth
control pill, but its acceptance in the world's second most populous
nation has been dismally low. According to the 2005-2006 National Family
Health Survey, only 49% of Indian women use modern contraceptives, and
of these, only 3% are on the Pill.
Instead, among urban India's increasingly educated and independent
women, it's emergency contraception that has taken over the market. The
"morning after" pill brands, which include i-pill, Unwanted 72 and
Preventol, are readily accessible over-the-counter drugs throughout
India, as they are in at least 40 other countries, including the U.S.,
U.K. and Australia. "There's an alarmingly high utilization of emergency
contraception, which has almost become synonymous with the i-pill,"
says Dr. Rishma Dhillon Pai, a consultant gynecologist at the Jaslok and
Lilavati hospitals in Mumbai, and vice president of the Federation of
Obstetric and
Gynecological Societies of India (FOGSI).
Read full article : http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1991879,00.html#ixzz0p8c4F3x0
Paidamoyo Chipunza
OPINION
Harare — They are supposed to be giving life, but sadly more and more
women are dying in this very sacred act of giving birth.
Statistics from two United Nations agencies show that maternal deaths
have trebled since the 1990s, casting Zimbabwe off the course in
meeting set targets.
Both the United Nations Children's Fund and the United Nations
Population Fund said to reduce these deaths, they were focusing on
capacitating skilled professionals and the institutions they serve.
"We are focusing on mobilising pregnant women to deliver at health
institutions, ensure that the health institutions are manned by a
skilled midwife, and that the facility is well equipped to handle
deliveries and related complications," said UNFPA assistant country
director, Dr Hillary Chiguvare.
Current data show that the Maternal Mortality Rate has increased to
880 deaths per 100 000 live births compared to 283 per 100 000 live
births in 1990 (Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey 1994).
The 2005/2006 ZDHS reported a MMR of 555 per 100 000 live births.
In 2007, a more accurate estimation (The Zimbabwe Maternal and
perinatal Mortality Study) reported the MMR at 725 per 100 000 live
births -- meaning the chance of a pregnant woman dying while giving
birth had tripled.
However, in line with Millennium Development Goal number 5, the
country's target is to reduce the MMR of 1990 by three-quarters to 70
per 100 000 live births by 2015.
Read full article: http://allafrica.com/stories/201005250065.html
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