Dr. Abla Al -Alfi, Deputy Minister of Health and Dr. Ismail Ibrahim, Acting President of Kafr El -Sheikh University, witnessed the signing of a cooperation protocol between the National Population Council, Kafr El -Sheikh University, and the Directorate of Health Affairs in the governorate.
This step comes to enhance the university’s role in implementing the urgent plan for population and development, and to improve the services of mother and child health care, through the implementation of the presidential initiative “A Alpha Golden Day for the Development of the Egyptian Family”.
The protocol was signed by Dr. Amani Shaker, Vice President of Kafr El -Sheikh University, Dr. Mohamed Abu Al -Saad, Director of the Governorate Health Affairs Directorate, and Dr. Yasser Gamal, Director General of Governance and Follow -up at the National Population Council.
During the protocol signing ceremony, the necessity of advising young people before marriage was discussed, in addition to the indication of the danger of early pregnancy that harms the quality of the child’s life, especially with the high rates of female infection with anemia.
Al -Alafi stressed the need to prepare for the first pregnancy, and called for strengthening the role of the university, and directing those coming to marriage to the family counseling centers of the Ministry of Health.
The deputy minister added that the use of family planning means immediately after birth in university hospitals will integrate with the efforts of the Ministry of Health to reduce unplanned pregnancy rates, especially since there are high rates of pregnancy during the first six months after birth. She pointed out that the capsule is long -acting and the IUD will be available for free in university hospitals, with the application of the mechanization system and the electronic fingerprint to ensure that the means reach the beneficiaries.
Al -Alfi explained that the rates of newborns in Kafr El -Sheikh amounted to 15/1000 children, which is less than the national average of 18/1000, but the rate of cesarean deliveries in the governorate is high, reaching 88.5%, to become the second highest governorate in the republic after Port Said Governorate.
She also mentioned that the high levels of cesarean section led to an increase in early births, the high cost of nurseries and operations, stressing the need to adhere to the guidelines for natural birth, the use of the “bartogram” scheme and the “Robson” standards, the rehabilitation of the birth rooms, the training of doctors and students on natural birth, and the provision of the necessary devices to follow up the birth cases.
Dr. Al -Alfi called on the university to cooperate in several aspects, including spreading the awareness materials produced by the ministry through social media, and contributing to training doctors at the levels of different nurseries to raise their efficiency.
In the same context, the deputy minister held a coordination meeting with NGOs, to follow up the implementation of the directives of Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, regarding the controls for strengthening safe birth and lowering the medically unjustified caesarean section rates in the private sector.
Al -Alfi confirmed that the rate of caesarean section witnessed an accelerated increase, as it reached 10% in 2000, and jumped to 28% after eight years, to reach 72% in 2021 at the level of the Republic. The main reason for this rise is to the private sector, where the rates of cesarean deliveries reach 97% in some governorates, which raised the total rate at the level of Egypt to 75%, despite the success of the government sector in reducing its rates to 52% last year.
The deputy minister pointed out that it is necessary to adhere to the registration of birth notifications transparently and determine the type of birth, noting that the ministry is making field visits to verify this, and to ensure the type of birth, while emphasizing that the manipulation of official data will be exposed to legal accountability.
The Ministry is also working to encourage natural birth after cesarean (VBAC) in medical conditions, and the Egyptian Health Council issued clear guidelines for safe natural birth and cesarean indicators, including the use of the bartograms in each case, and the application of Robson standards to accurately analyze the causes of caesareanten, and to reveal unjustified cases, in addition to the need to obtain a second opinion of specialists before making a caesarean decision.
