Jehangir Ganaie
Srinagar, May 17: Eight percent of foetuses are lost because of abortion, miscarriage or stillbirth, while 92 percent pregnancies end up in a live birth in Jammu and Kashmir, according to the NHFS-5 data. Miscarriage is the most common type of foetal wastage which accounts for 5 percent of all pregnancies.
The National Health and Family Survey (NHFS) data says that 92 percent of pregnancies in the five years preceding the survey ended in a live birth, and the remaining 8 percent terminated in foetal wastage (abortion, miscarriage, or stillbirth). Miscarriage is the most commonly reported type of foetal wastage, accounting for 5 percent of all pregnancies, and abortions accounted for 2 percent.
The three main reasons for abortion reported by women were complications in pregnancy (26%), health did not permit (19%) and unplanned pregnancy (17%), it adds.
“The most common methods used for performing abortions were medicines (69 %), manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) (1%), and other surgical methods (23%),” it adds further.
“A large majority (79%) of abortions were performed in the public health sector, and 14 percent were performed in the private health sector,” it says.
“Thirty-seven percent of women reported an abortion reported having complications from the abortion. Most abortions in Jammu & Kashmir (82%) are performed by a doctor,” it says.
The median interval between births in the five years before the survey in Jammu & Kashmir is 36.7 months. Six percent of births take place within 18 months of the previous birth, and 19 percent occur within 24 months, it said.
The proportion of births occurring within 24 months of earlier birth is exceptionally high for mothers in the 20-29 age group (30%) and births occurring after a deceased sibling (44%) and half (49%) of all births occur within three years of the previous birth,” the survey reported.
Research shows that waiting at least three years between children reduces the risk of infant mortality and has a positive impact on maternal health.
