Bangladesh

Bangladesh is one of the world's most densely populated countries. Although social norms favor early marriages and large families, the government is committed to improving women’s status as well as expanding family planning options. Over the years, Bangladesh has emerged as one of the world’s successes in terms of lowering fertility and improving living standards for women. Yet, the country is still straining from a large and growing population.

Since 1974, EngenderHealth’s work in Bangladesh has helped expand the availability, quality, and use of reproductive health care services. Our current activities focus on:

• Expanding family planning
• Preventing and treating obstetric fistula

Expanding Family Planning
EngenderHealth implements the Mayer Hashi Project in Bangladesh. The project, which means “Smiling Mother” in Bengali, aims to address the need for family planning through expanding contraceptive choices and services, and to prevent post-partum hemorrhage, the number one cause of maternal mortality in Bangladesh. Supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Mayer Hashi Project works:

• Improving women’s and children’s health by increasing awareness of and access to long-acting and permanent methods of family planning, such as implants, IUDs, and male and female sterilization.
• Raising awareness among health care workers about complications that can lead to post partum hemorrhage and training field workers in the distribution of the life-saving drug Misoprostol, to reach the 85 percent of Bengali women who give birth at home without skilled attendants.

 
Preventing and Treating Obstetric Fistula
EngenderHealth promotes efforts to prevent and treat obstetric fistula in Bangladesh through the Fistula Care Project. Our efforts include:

• Providing technical assistance to three large private hospitals: LAMB Hospital in Dinajpur, Memorial Christian Hospital in Cox's Bazar, and Kumudini Hospital in Tangail
• Upgrading instruments and equipment
• Training doctors and nurses in fistula repair and postoperative care, comprehensive case management, and counseling
• Engaging religious leaders to raise awareness of fistula prevention and repair services
• Linking fistula services with family planning and emergency obstetric care