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Bangladesh
Home to more than 150 million people, Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. With overcrowding and restricted resources, women and their families in Bangladesh face challenges in accessing reproductive health care. Despite this, the government of Bangladesh is committed to expanding access to family planning services and ensuring the delivery of high-quality care. Since 1974, EngenderHealth's work in partnership with the Bangladesh Ministry of Health has helped increase the availability, quality, and use of family planning and reproductive health care services. As a result, lower fertility rates and improved standards of living have made Bangladesh a model for progress and change.
EngenderHealth’s inclusive community-based approach in Bangladesh focuses on expanding access to family planning and preventing and treating obstetric fistula. We also work to increase awareness and access to long-acting and permanent methods of family planning (LA/PMs) such as hormonal implants, the intrauterine device (IUD), and male and female sterilization. Our work has also included preventing postpartum hemorrhage.
Many births in Bangladesh occur at home, without skilled birth attendants. EngenderHealth has trained thousands of health care workers in Bangladesh to distribute the lifesaving drug misoprostol, a low-cost approach to preventing postpartum hemorrhage, a leading cause of maternal death. This has contributed to a 40% drop in maternal deaths in Bangladesh during the past decade.
Preventing and Treating Obstetric Fistula
EngenderHealth promotes efforts to prevent and treat obstetric fistula in Bangladesh through the Fistula Care project. Our fistula care and prevention efforts in Bangladesh include:
- Providing technical assistance to four large private hospitals: LAMB Hospital in Dinajpur, Ad-din Hospital in Dhaka and Jessore, and Kumudini Hospital in Tangail
- Upgrading instruments and equipment
- Training doctors and nurses in fistula repair and postoperative care, comprehensive case management, and counseling
- Creating community awareness to ensure fistula prevention
- Linking fistula services with family planning and emergency obstetric care
Expanding Family Planning and LA/PMs
EngenderHealth’s Mayer Hashi II Project in Bangladesh aims to address the need for family planning through expanding contraceptive choices and services. Supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the project works to improve women's health by increasing awareness of and access to long-acting and permanent methods of family planning (LA/PMs), such as hormonal implants, the intrauterine device (IUD), and male and female sterilization. The project will also include outreach to underserved groups in rural and urban areas of Bangladesh.
