Dubai, September 27: An all-out reproductive health campaign to allay the fears and misconceptions prevalent in women with regard to child-rearing and raising big families, highlighted the World Contraception Day function in the UAE on Saturday, at Monarch Hotel in Dubai.
The campaign focuses on the centuries-old cultural beliefs of raising a large family, which hinder UAE women from doing regular check-ups and spacing their children.
A pilot study conducted recently among 500 women on reproductive health stated that 85 per cent of women consulted their obstetricians-gynaecologists only when they had high-risk pregnancy and complications.
Dr Aruna Sivapurapu, consultant to Lifeline Hospital in Abu Dhabi, said that the UAE is advancing a lot in new medical technologies and modalities of treating diseases, but lots of gaps continue to exist in the reproductive health of women leading to teenage pregnancies common between 14 and 16 year-olds without consulting any gynaecologist.
The study prompted a group of obstetricians-gynaecologists based in the UAE with the support of the Ministry of Health and Bayer Schering Pharma to meet on Saturday during which they came up with recommendations to conduct a reproductive health campaign.
Apart from counselling and setting up of a network of women clinics within the primary health centres spread all across the UAE, the team of obstetricians-gynaecologists recommend an education campaign among male and female students in the colleges to prepare them for marriage and for pregnancies, which are planned and wanted.
“College students, particularly the men, should understand the importance of spacing children and to get rid of misconceptions in child-bearing, especially at a time when they are getting married,” she said.
Dr Sivapurapu said the difficult issue is to involve the husbands and encourage them to participate actively.
She said insurance companies should be motivated to include reproductive health in the coverage, which will focus on a package that covers taking care of contraceptive expenses and screening of women such as mammography and pap smear.
“This is the first time that this need is being discussed in UAE,” she said.
She said the next step to be taken is the implementation stage that will enable the team with the support of Bayer Schering Pharma, which agrees to provide the information materials, to meet the health centres and the doctors through video presentations in different languages and training of para-medical personnel.
–Agencies