Women's Health problems in Pakistan |
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What
was the main obstacle? The main obstacle was that no-one could imagine that women would have an examination by a GP who is operating a clinic right near their homes. The following were identified as restraining factors: * The concern as to how they could face this person again * What if my husband finds out? * The fear that someone may peep in during examination * The fear that the staff of clinic would disclose this information to my neighbours /relatives. How we overcame these problems First of all, I established an all day help line (from 06am to 01 am) which provided free advice and guidance for medical and social problems of patients. I am proud to inform you that I have saved lives of many innocent girls who were at the point of committing suicide because of their social circumstances. My clinic is more of a social welfare office and we are available for everyone regardless of faith and religion. I respect every patient, especially women. I always reassure our reluctant patients that having a physical examination is not a sin on their part nor any opportunity for me to do some evil. I inform them that a doctor is fully aware of the human body and when he examines private parts of a female, it is for benefit of women and not for satisfying his evil feelings. Right from the start, I referred to patients as realtives, such as sister, daughter, and aunt so that they should understand I do not have any evil feeling for them. To overcome other difficulties, we took the following steps: |
1) The examination room of my clinic permits complete privacy 2) During examination, my wife or a female nurse is always present 3) Patient is allowed to bring in one of her relative or friend into examination room during check up, if she likes. 4) All information regarding a patient's examination and disease is kept fully confidential, even from the husband if the woman demands. If she is suffering from some serious problem, we always encourage her to take the husband into confidence. To address the problem of lack of awareness among women about the importance of Antenatal care and complications of childbirth by non-qualified, non-trained midwives, the following question was formulated: |