New Delhi: The well being ministry has expanded its record of classes of high-risk pregnancies to make sure that extra ladies have institutional deliveries and scale back deaths throughout or after childbirth.

As per a discover issued by the household planning division underneath the National Health Mission (NHM) and despatched to all state mission administrators on 14 February, the variety of high-risk being pregnant classes has been elevated from 10 to 24.

“This step has been taken to save more lives—both mother and the newborn. The addition (of new categories) means a covid- positive woman will be covered under the programme,” mentioned a senior official conscious of the matter.

As per the well being ministry, states the place the best of pregnant ladies of their second or third trimester obtained antenatal care underneath the Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA) in January are Uttar Pradesh (153,766), Andhra Pradesh (29,085), Bihar (24,446), West Bengal (16,202) and Karnataka (16,122).

So far, 47.34 million ladies have been coated underneath the programme.

The authorities launched PMSMA in 2016 to offer fixed-day, free-of-cost, assured, complete and high quality antenatal care on the ninth day of each month to all pregnant ladies of their second and third trimester. In January 2022, the ministry launched the prolonged PMSMA (e-PMSMA) to additional strengthen high-risk being pregnant monitoring.

The discover mentioned, “Furthermore, for monitoring particular person high-risk being pregnant and provision of further PMSMA classes, the ministry has developed further options within the present PMSMA portal: title based mostly line-listing of high-risk pregnancies (HRP), particular person monitoring of HRP as much as wholesome final result (until forty fifth day after supply), HRP classes has elevated from 10 classes to 24 classes, further tab for pregnant ladies check-up and HRP detection in apart from ninth of each month, provision of further PMSMA session over and above ninth day of each month (max 4 occasions in a month), ASHA profile era, statistical illustration of varied companies underneath PMSMA/e-PMSMA, sms alert to beneficiary in addition to to the ASHA for registration of HRP and comply with up visits.”

Before the additions had been made, the ministry carried out a pilot research on prolonged PMSMA in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. As per the ministry, this was accomplished to determine challenges in implementing the extra PMSMA parts and tackle any points or technical glitches. Accordingly, the ideas/suggestions are integrated within the portal.

“Furthermore, as decided, the same services would be implemented across all states/UTs. In order to enable appropriate follow ups, tracking, and management of all high-risk pregnancies, it is therefore requested to give instruction to all concerned for reporting of the aforementioned extra features on a regular basis in the PMSMA portal,” the discover learn.

Some of the high-risk situations of being pregnant are extreme anaemia (haemoglobin lower than 7gm/dl), pregnancy-induced hypertension, pre-eclampsia, pre-eclampsic toxemia, syphilis/HIV constructive, gestational diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism, younger primi ( lower than 20 years) or aged gravida (greater than 35 years), twin / a number of being pregnant, low mendacity placenta, placenta previa, constructive unhealthy obstetric historical past (historical past of nonetheless beginning, abortion, congenital malformation, obstructed labour, untimely beginning and so on.)

The maternal mortality charge in India has declined by 6.36% between 2000 and 2020, which is greater than the worldwide decline, ladies and baby improvement minister Smriti Irani informed the Rajya Sabha over the last Parliament session, citing the UN Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group (MMEIG) 2020 report.

“The maternal mortality rate (MMR) of India has declined from 384 in 2000 to 103 (per 100,000 births) in 2020, whereas the global MMR has declined from 339 in 2000 to 223 in 2020. The average annual rate of reduction in global MMR during the 2000–2020 periods was 2.07%, while India’s MMR has declined by 6.36%, which is higher than the global decline,” she mentioned.

Dr Hrishikesh Pai, former head of the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India, mentioned the programme has been doing properly and has helped to lower mortality charge in India. “The target set by India by 2030 for MMR is 70 per 100,000 and some of the states are really doing well, such as Kerala and Maharashtra. It is good that more factors have been included in the high risk pregnancy categories,” he added.

An e-mail despatched to the Union well being and household welfare searching for response went unanswered at press time.