Population problem and health fertility in Yemen [Archives:2004/739/Community]

Ismail Al-Ghabiri
The human is the target of development. The societies strongly believe and abide by this principle in behavior and practice, and launch from the human being toward the ultimate goal “Healthy human beings capable of producing and comprehending, with the ability to think and create”. This goal could be achieved only in a healthy environment. How? The answer is simple to realize. It begins with the health care of a pregnant woman during the pregnancy period and after delivery. Then it continues through dedicated attention to properly raising the newborns with the appropriate nutritional food in order to grow up healthy and capable of effectively contributing to immediate families and society at large.
Thus, each member becomes the basis of a healthy and productive family and therefore viable society. The Republic of Yemen, in recent years, has been able to accomplish tremendous progress at the level of human health in urban cities, but remains short in rural areas where more health awareness and preventive measures are still required in the field of family planning and health fertility.
The population problem in Yemen
The Republic of Yemen is considered one of the countries with a very high birth rate. The population issue is one of two stumbling blocks beside the water crisis, which continues to disturb both makers and implementers of development plans. The problem, devours and deflates any development indicators and any economic plans. Researchers advocate that any development authorities understand this problem, and unless work to implement a national strategy on health fertility and family panning commences at a very rapidly pace, the constant increases in the number of newborns will always overwhelm any improvement in the development growth rate, otherwise, returning to the starting point is inevitable.
The increase in the population leads to unorganized population movement and consequently generates deficiencies from the migration from rural areas to urban regions, such as when people would either abandon their lands and critical work in planting and growing vital crops hopingly for finding better opportunities in cities, or they would remain in their villages and subsequently their valuable arable lands are irrevocably dismantled through the process of inheritance. Another form of deficiency is the drop in the level of health care and education because of the unequaled growth in services to meet the need and demand. There are many students who sutdy in over crowded classrooms unable to interact properly in the educational operation. The low level of health awareness combined with the unavailability of appropriate health services to cover the needs and demands leads to constant increases of population are behind creating unhealthy individuals unable to work effectively and productively, just simply adding more burdens to the lines of unemployment. Therefore, the connection between the population problem and health fertility could be clearly seen in the outcome to the drop of population growth rates.
The perception of health fertility is mixed up in the mentality of many people, as many people are unaware of the definition of family planning and birth control. Many people are also not aware of the danger of consecutive birth deliveries on the health of the mother and the infants, not counting the financial burden on the mainstay of the family who is usually the man. Many people do not fully realize the importance of regular visits to doctors during the period of pregnancy until after delivery.
Furthermore, many young mothers, due to early marriages, lack required awareness of how to provide health care for newborns and the proper nutrition for them. In order to shed more light on the point, a young female was married to a man whose occupation is based on daily earning, meaning he could work for one day and wait ten days before he could work again. The illiterate wife performs some services for other well-to-do neighboring families in order to improve their living conditions. This family who happens to live nearby my house, live inside a small unsanitary home. Amid these difficult conditions, the family, following one year of marriage, has had a newborn baby girl, of course the mother did not have any medical attention and care during the pregnancy period and she almost died during the unmonitored delivery. The health situation of the baby girl is not very encouraging and continues to deteriorate. Amid these miserable conditions, the mother has conceived again. You can imagine what will happen to this family.
——
[archive-e:739-v:13-y:2004-d:2004-05-20-p:community]