7 dists report below average high-risk pregnancies in Raj

BARMER: Seven di s t r i c t s i n Rajasthan have reported below average high-risk pregnancies, prompting the health department to order them to initiate a new exercise to identify these women, according to a letter accessed by HT.

The government launched Kushal Mangal Karyakram (KMK) in 2016 to spot high-risk pregnancies to keep maternal mortality in check.

A pregnancy is considered high risk if the woman is either below 1 7 or above 3 5 ; s he’s underweight or overweight before becoming pregnant; she’s pregnant with twins, triplets or other multiples; has high bl o o d pr e s s ure , di a be t e s , depression or other health problems; had problems with a previous pregnancy, including premature labor or having a child with a genetic problem or birth defect.

According t o data on t he KMK portal, 28,295 camps were organised in the state from April 2019 to March 2020; 4% of the pregnancies were identified as high risk. But during the review of KMK this month, it was found that only 2% of total pregnancies r e gi s t e r e d in Barmer, Jhunjhunu, Dausa, Jodhpur, Pratapgarh and Sawai Madhopur were classified as high risk; in Chittorgarh, this was a mere 1%.

Director of Reproductive Chil d Healt h ( RCH) Dr RS Chippi wrote to chief medical and health officers (CMHO) of these seven districts to hold more camps for identifying

Jhunjhunu

Barmer

Jodhpur

Sawai Madhopur

Pratapgarh

Chittrogarh

Dausa these pregnancies, presuming that the number of high-risk pregnancies couldn’t be below the state average.

The district officials have been directed to hold the camps by Covid-19 guidelines of social distancing and other safety precautions.

In Rajasthan, about 1.9 million births happen every year; 10% of these pregnancies are high risk and needed special attention.

After the launch of the Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA) by Central government in 2016, this number has gone down.

The programme provides assured, comprehensive and quality antenatal care, free of cost, universally to all pregnant women on the ninth of every month. PMSMA guarantees a minimum package of antenatal care services to women in their third and third trimesters of pregnancy at government health facilities.

Barmer’s Reproductive and Child Health Officer Dr Preet Mohinder Singh said lack of specialists is the biggest hurdle in tracking of HRP cases. “Some districts rope in private sector s p e c i a l i s t s f o r t hi s b ut in Barmer, because of the sparse population, even this is not possible,” he said.