Maternal Mortality..a story i did in AA

Heaps have been written about motherhood — poems, songs, ballads and tales. Nothing seems enough when one comes to relate a mother’s selflessness and illimitable affection. Many a poet have described her warm disposition and adorned it with similes and metaphors. Virtues of love, labour, forgiveness, compassion and humanity are never lost on a mother. But despite all the accolades showered on her, the sad truth is that the number of women who die during birth of her child has not come down. More than half a million women die in pregnancy during childbirth, of which 70,000 are from India (SRS 2006). This comes down to a startling statistic that one woman dies every seven minutes from a pregnancy related cause in our country.

Dr Aparajita Gogoi, the national coordinator of The White Ribbon Alliance,  an international NGO committed towards safe motherhood says, “For a woman to die of pregnancy and childbirth is social injustice. Such deaths are rooted in women’s powerlessness, unequal status in society, lack of decision-making power, absence of basic health care and lack of access to education.”

A country’s mortality rate is considered to be the best indicator of its health system. In India, with a mortality rate touching 300, it is but obvious that serious efforts need to be taken and fast. According to Dr Gogoi, “Making motherhood safer requires more than just good quality health services. Women must be empowered and guaranteed their human rights – including their rights to survive pregnancy and childbirth.”

The tales of women dying during childbirth are heart-wrenching and gruesome. Sushma Yadav, aged 24 years, lost her life while delivering a baby about six months ago. Her husband Santosh now takes care of their two children with the help of his mother and continuously laments his luck. “God has been very unkind to us. Who is going to take care of these two children?” It does not occur to him or his family that Sushma would have been alive today had proper care been taken when she was pregnant. Her blood pressure was never monitored, and although she did take the iron-folic tablets prescribed to her by the dispensary, improper physical checkup led her to her tragic fate.

The fact that nearly 80 per cent of these deaths is easily avoidable points towards the ignorance plaguing the society, especially among the people belonging to the lower strata. Dr Geeta Chadha, senior consultant, obstetrics and gynaecology, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital confirms, “It is true that nearly two-third of cases of maternal mortality are preventable. The basic reasons being haemorrhage (flow of blood from a ruptured blood vessel) in a setting of anaemia, unsupervised infection or high blood pressure. There is a sea of human beings, who need to be made aware of maternal care.” 

Ramsakhi, the wife of Pappu, a migrant labourer working in Hyderabad was expecting her third child when complications arose. The position of the baby was transverse and because of prolonged obstructed labour, her uterus ruptured and she started bleeding internally. Once the doctor saw her condition, it was advised that she be rushed to a hospital. But before they could have done so, Ramsakhi had already lost the baby.

The situation is not only confined to the lower strata of the society. Many a times well-off families also neglect the essential needs of an expecting mother, their basic premise being that a doctor is to be called only when complications set it. Without regular check-ups and physical examination a woman’s health deteriorates and chances of her and the baby’s survival become slimmer.

Unassisted childbirth is another factor that adds to the ignorance factor resulting in an increased maternal risk, that is, the probability of a woman dying or experiencing serious injury during delivery. It is then perhaps an irony that in United States a movement for “free birth” is fast gaining ground. Its advocates suggesting that epidurals (a form of low dose anesthesia) be taken at the time of birth and a woman be given the right to deliver her baby without the assistance of a doctor. While the movement may aim at giving a woman a right to choose whether she wants the pain or not, it is dangerous nonetheless.

Some lessons for pregnant ladies and their families:

1. Understand that every pregnancy faces risk, even if previous ones have been normal.
2. A pregnant woman needs to be attended by a skilled health worker.
3. Families of pregnant women must have fully worked out plans for delivery.
4. A newborn baby’s umbilical cord should be cut and tied and he or she should be kept warm and suckled immediately.

For a blog entry pertaining the same issue albeit non-professional..click HERE