Last Updated:
Improving maternal health remains a pertinent goal – to not only protect every mother and ensure they are treated with dignity and respect, but to also foster national development
Newborn screening aims to identify hidden conditions before symptoms show up
Over recent decades, India has made significant progress to overcome maternal healthcare delivery gaps. In fact, India’s Maternal Mortality Ratio declined from 254 to 97 deaths per 1,00,000 live births between 2006-07 and 2018-20. However, despite these vital gains, there remain inequities across states in attaining respectful, high-quality maternal care. Further, certain vulnerable groups, especially those in tribal and rural regions, disproportionately bear the burden of complications and death during childbirth and the postpartum period.
To accelerate progress towards comprehensive care for women, particularly in underserved regions, a shift is needed in the way we articulate women’s health services broadly, and maternal care in particular. A combination of efforts to enhance clinical outcomes, change norms, and encourage gender-sensitive reforms amongst care providers and seekers is vital.
This complements the Government of India’s efforts, including to identify areas of improvement in care provided throughout pregnancy, and to address underlying causes of poor maternal health outcomes through specially designed programmes. These address issues including chronic undernutrition, anemia, poor autonomy, and literacy. Taking bold moves can help set India on the path to following the WHO’s Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health, which presents a roadmap to end all preventable maternal, newborn, and child deaths by 2030.
To enhance access to care for pregnant women in vulnerable communities, leveraging intersectoral expertise and resources, spearheading meaningful collaborations, and empowering care practitioners are important to drive impactful change. This can help reduce health disparities while advancing gender equality.
Reaching the last mile through collaboration
Dr. Anura Kurpad, Senior Advisor, Healthcare and Nutrition, Tata Trusts said, “Achieving deeper health coverage for mothers and children is an important target. Yet, sparsely located medical centers and understaffed facilities, among other barriers, impede access to healthcare in rural and remote areas. The intervention of ASHA and Anganwadi workers can help bridge these gaps as they can build stronger community trust by understanding unique local practices and beliefs. This can facilitate the early detection of high-risk pregnancies, ensure that proper guidance on antenatal and postpartum care is given, support institutional deliveries, and more.”
“Supporting this, efforts to upskill auxiliary nurse midwives, staff nurses, and general practitioners on best practices to manage high-risk pregnancies or live births can strengthen quality service delivery in India,” he added.
To lower infant and maternal mortality in India and facilitate quality healthcare, various initiatives have come up. These include the Alliance for Saving Mothers and Newborns (ASMAN), an exploratory project in select geographies led by Tata Trusts and other organizations. It focused on the critical 48 to 60 hours during childbirth and the post-partum period, offering support in the form of tech-enabled nurse mentoring, in-facility support to identify infrastructural or training gaps, remote support via digital platforms, and continual learning tools for nurses. This endeavor saved the lives of countless mothers and new-born children in India. Such programmes indicate the progress that can be made by leveraging collaboration and creating platforms to address pressing issues such as postpartum depression.
Identifying maternal health and nutrition risks
While protecting maternal health, concerted efforts must be made to promote adequate nutrition for mothers – particularly post childbirth, when breastfeeding. Such measures are vital given the status on-ground: many Indian women enter pregnancy with anemia (57%), underweight (19%), or obes (24%), and this can translate to a higher risks with post-partum hemorrhage, poor baby growth or gestational diabetes, if not addressed. Nutrition during pregnancy and beyond supports the mother’s well-being and energy levels and contributes to the child’s growth.
Promoting a healthy, nutritious diet – comprising adequate intakes of protein, iron, vitamin B12, omega 3 fatty acids and more, through diverse foods to meet one’s nutritional needs, enhance optimal baby growth, and ensure a safe pregnancy – is vital. Some of these needs are above the normal daily requirement and require intake of high-quality foods. It’s also important to recognize the multigenerational, adverse effects of maternal nutrition on health and development and accordingly design programmes that raise awareness of and combat these specific challenges.
When women access maternal healthcare, there is also a tremendous opportunity to encourage them to check other health indicators. Of the limited number of women in India accessing pregnancy care, this may be one of the few times they come in contact with the healthcare system. Timely disease management is important for women’s health, making this a pivotal moment to promote screening to detect conditions common among women, including breast and cervical cancer. Early detection can pave the way for swift treatment and improved health outcomes.
Improving maternal health remains a pertinent goal – to not only protect every mother and ensure they are treated with dignity and respect, but to also foster national development.
- First Published:
