Dr. Abla Al-Alfi, Deputy Minister of Health and population, said that although Ismailia governorate has achieved remarkable progress in reducing the total childbearing rate to 2.6 children per woman, according to the population survey in 2021, there are still good opportunities to reduce this rate, especially that the rate of unwanted pregnancy reached 2.63%, this came during a meeting of the regional population Council chaired by Major General Akram Jalal, governor of Ismailia.
“Abdel Ghaffar” pointed out that the deputy minister stressed that the thousand golden days Presidential Initiative for the development of the Egyptian family will work to provide integrated family counseling, starting from pre-marital counseling, to post-pregnancy counseling, even after childbirth and follow-up of the child, and that this will contribute effectively to raising awareness of young men and women, their reproductive health, especially that 97% of women in the governorate did not receive family planning advice, as well as the rate of married women who do not use family planning method reached 24.2%, and stressed the need to commit to installing a family planning method immediately after cesarean section, as well as prescribing pills after natural childbirth, especially the ratio of The installation of means after childbirth in the province amounted to 2.6%.
The official spokesman of the Ministry of Health and population continued that the deputy minister praised the low mortality rate of infants and children under five in the governorate, and also reviewed the new vision to deal with the population issue, which is based on unifying the human rights message based on the spacing between pregnancy and the other by 3-5 years, to ensure the rights of the child to optimal care, Positive Education and proper nutrition, ensure the right of the mother and fetus to prepare for the first pregnancy, and not to succumb to pregnancy in less than two years, as well as reducing illiteracy rates, unemployment, and combating negative societal phenomena, foremost of which is early marriage.
She explained that the governorate has witnessed an increase in the marriage rate of women under twenty, reaching 15.9% in 2021 compared to 10.5% in 2014, stressing the need to deal with the population issue through careful examination of the problems suffered by the areas most in need of intervention and improve their population characteristics according to questionnaires on the ground, to develop solutions in line with the conditions of each region and the nature of its population.
For his part, Major General Akram Jalal, governor of Ismailia, said that exploiting the energy of young people and improving their demographic characteristics supports the labor market and the education system, in support of the state’s approach to human development, and stressed the need to follow up the urgent plan in the areas most in need to improve demographic characteristics and prepare monthly reports to monitor the reality and the speed of implementation of the necessary interventions to improve indicators.
He also stressed on strengthening the partnership with the Suez Canal University and the Ministry of education to reach the young people coming to get married and raise awareness of the thousand golden days file and the need for him to get premarital counseling as a proactive step to avoid problems affecting the demographic characteristics and the health of mothers and children.
He added that family counseling has become a necessity to enhance the awareness of those who are about to get married, prepare the girl for the first pregnancy and encourage her to give birth naturally, stressing the importance of the participation of the private sector in reducing cesarean delivery rates, and appreciated the Coordination of the central administration of non-governmental therapeutic institutions at the Ministry of Health in this regard.
At the end of the meeting, it was agreed to implement an urgent plan to improve the population characteristics in Al-Qantara West as the most in need of interventions to improve educational services, reduce mortality, the rate of natural increase, as well as high rates of early marriage, the deputy minister pointed out that there are 13 factories staffed by women in Al-Qantara West, and ways will be discussed to implement the our health our capital project in these factories to provide mobile units for Family Planning, and provide a working environment that improves the efficiency of women’s performance and increase their productivity
