Pregnant women and lactating mothers are the most vulnerable during the emergency situation like floods and a study revealed that five percent of expecting mothers were unattended and had to deliver their children in open place or on boats during floods in 2007.

The study, conducted by U NFPA Bangladesh and Human Development Research Centre (HDRC) on May last, also revealed that only 27 percent cases of delivery were attended by medically competent personnel while 68 percent by unskilled attendants.

The study was conducted on 95 women in six flood-affected districts following the floods from July to September 2007.

The study titled 'Delivering babies in emergency situations;

Where and under which circumstances' was conducted to analyse what had happened to approximately 60000 pregnant and lactating mothers in six out of 12 flood-affected districts that received UNFPA support.

The study revealed that in all the flood shelters, myriad problems made life miserable for the helpless people particularly children, pregnant women and old people.

There was dearth of skilled personnel to assist delivery of babies, and delivery at the shelters was relatively less with only six percent while deliveries in open spaces was 12 percent, said Prof Abul Barkat while presenting the research findings at the IDB Bhaban.

"It was found that 80 percent of , upazila health complexes (UHCs) were using delivery’ kits for normal

delivery. But the Caesarean kits were not used at the UHCs, because of shortage of skilled health professionals,“ he said

Even the pregnant and lactating mothers had to wait for a long time on the queues for receiving flood relief and none of these women received any relief related to reproductive care, he said.

The study recommended for special schemes for distribution of emergency cash to distressed pregnant women for reproductive healthcare and to augment flood-time support to rural pregnant mothers, especially during the third trimesters.

The recommendations also included introducing medical services for pregnant women and lactating mothers along with the victims of diarrhoea and other common diseases during floods,

transportation arrangements for them to go to healthcare centres for safe delivery.

At the same time, upazila nirbahi officers, UP chairmen and members and local NGOs should be involved in optimal use of the kits to deliver babies during the disasters.

Dr Mohammad Moycz Uddin, additional director general of DGHS was present at the dissemination seminar as chief guest while Arthur Erken, UNFPA representative in Bangladesh, chaired the session.

Tahcra Ahmed, assistant representative of UNFPA, Dr Jahangir Hossain, Dr Parveen Huq Chowdhury and officials from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Directorate General of Health Services, development partners and NGO representatives were also present.