Easing birthpangs

New government app for pregnant women; ninth of every month to be safe-birthing day

Dr Dinesh Baswal | March 25, 2019


#Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan   #app   #pregnancy   #women   #birth   #PMSMA   #LaQshya  


Most of us have paid at least one visit to a health facility. It is easy to identify quality care when we receive it – an attentive doctor, a responsive team of health workers, adherence to hygiene and safety protocols, and so on. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to high quality care, a situation we are working hard to change.  

 
In Delhi in December 2018, the Partners’ Forum, hosted by the government of India and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health, gave us a chance to highlight best practices and innovative schemes in health.
 
In 2016 and 2017, India launched two such innovative schemes, Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA) and LaQshya – Labour Room Quality Improvement Initiative. Both programmes aim to improve the quality of care for pregnant women, the former focusing on care during pregnancy and the latter on care during delivery and directly afterwards.
 
Under PMSMA, doctors in both public and private sectors examine expecting mothers on the ninth of every month. These women are provided iron-folic acid and calcium supplements and are investigated for factors such as severe anaemia and syphilis, which can complicate pregnancies. Identification of high-risk factors and management through quality services helps keep mothers and babies safe. So far, more than 1.6 crore antenatal checkups have been conducted nationally under this programme.
 
Recent evidence highlights that improving care for mothers and babies around birth can lead to more than 40  percent reduction in maternal and newborn deaths. With this goal in mind, the LaQshya programme was launched to address inefficiencies in infrastructure, human resource, consumables and equipment in labour rooms, all of which impact the process and quality of care. But LaQshya goes further, building the capacities of labour room staff in evidence-based practices, improving labour room protocols and providing respectful maternity care. 
 
LaQshya will also accelerate the implementation of birth companions. Birth companions are female relatives who look after the mother for the duration of delivery to help provide emotional support and ensure dignity in the labour room. Lastly, to ensure quality at every level, LaQshya mandates the formation of monitoring committees at national, state and district level to meet regularly to discuss implementation challenges, devise strategies, and put them to action. 
Within one year of the inception of the LaQshya programme, 2,090 facilities, including 128 medical colleges with high delivery load, have been taken up by states for rollout. The objective of the programme is to certify labour rooms that reach the benchmarks of quality set under the programme. Quality improvement and quality certification is a process that requires consistent efforts and monitoring. 
 
In addition, maternal and child health wings and obstetric high dependency units/intensive care units have been established at high case load facilities and skills labs with mannequins for capacity building have been established at national and state levels. A safe delivery application for mobile based trainings on intrapartum care has also been developed. These initiatives will ensure in reducing maternal and newborn mortality.
 
Yet, despite recent progress and momentum around quality of care, more must be done to address persistent challenges in pursuit of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. I request all pregnant women to download the PMSMA application, search their nearest PMSMA health facility and avail antenatal care services on the ninth of the month. I also appeal to private sector doctors to come forward and dedicate the ninth of the month to PMSMA and provide voluntary services at nearby public health facilities. Public health facilities must strive to achieve LaQshya certification, and both public and private sectors across all states should prioritise efforts to improve quality of care. Our future prosperity and well-being rests on the health of our women and children. Let’s help them survive and thrive. 
 
Dr Baswal is deputy commissioner, Maternal Health, health ministry.
 
(This article appears in the March 31, 2019 edition)

Comments

 

Other News

Air Pollution: What needs to be done to tame the silent killer

Air pollution in Delhi has been in headlines, as every year in recent times. Mumbai too has suffered from air pollution, despite being a coastal city. Apart from many other metros such as Bangalore and Kolkata, tier-I and -II cities and rural areas also have high pollution levels. Every year reports and st

Free food grains for 81.35 cr beneficiaries for five years

The central government will provide free food grains to about 81.35 crore beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) for a period of five years with effect from January 1, 2024, the cabinet decided on Wednesday. Terming it as a “historic decision”, a

“I wrote ‘Survival at Stake’ to provide food for thought about solutions”

Survival at Stake: How Our Treatment of Animals Is Key to Human Existence By Poorva Joshipura HarperCollins, 328 pages, Rs 499 With science now recognising animal consciousness, intelligence, emotion, and even morality, there must rise an awareness of

‘Bon Voyage’ through the Arctic: Exploring new horizons for India

India`s tryst with trade through the Arctic regions, including the Northern Sea Routes (NSR), has become an impact-making endeavor recently. The Arctic of yore is now a pivot – point of geopolitics, of climate change discussions, and for economic opportunities; 40% of oil and gas reserves said to be

Demystifying Contemporary Finance Theory and other lessons in investment

Investing Decoded: Simple Path To Building A Portfolio In Millions By Anirudh Rathore Penguin India, 320 pages, Rs 499

Deepfake: India to prepare four-point action plan

Deepfake has emerged as a serious threat to democracy and social institutions across the world. Propagation of deepfake content via social media platforms has aggravated this challenge. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has, from time to time, advised social media in

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter