The level of maternal mortality is decreasing in Kyrgyzstan, but, at the same time, its causes have changed. The head of the Reproductive Health Program of the United Nations Population Fund, Nurgul Smankulova, announced at a press conference at 24.kg news agency.
According to her, if earlier the most frequent causes were bleeding, preeclampsia, sepsis, today these are other chronic diseases. Therefore, the issue of reproductive health, family planning is extremely important.
«According to the e-healthcare center, about 159,000 births were registered in 2019. About 15,000 (9.5 percent) of them occurred with interval of less than a year, more than 32,000 women (about 22 percent) gave birth to children with an interval of less than two years. This is a big load on the body, it does not have time to rest,» Nurgul Smankulova said.
She stressed that there has been a decrease in teenage pregnancy under 19 years old — about 9,000 (about 5 percent). In other words, there were five teenagers per 100 women in labor; this figure was 6.5 in 2014.
At the same time, the program manager noted that only 23 percent of the women can afford to use contraception due to their high cost. «Since 2015, no international company has provided contraceptives. A small amount comes from the Global Fund, but, as a rule, it is targeted assistance for the target groups. The country, which is accustomed to receiving assistance, was left face to face with the question of how to obtain contraceptives for women who have a high risk of maternal mortality, but who cannot buy them. Since 2018, the Ministry of Health has decided to purchase contraceptives for the medical and social group, where there are mortality risks. It is about $ 50,000 a year,» she added.
