Punjab Maternal Mortality Rate: The two-fold increase in maternal mortality rate in Punjab during a month has raised concerns of health officials. Maternal mortality rate is the rate of death of a mother during pregnancy or childbirth. The increase in maternal mortality rate has put the health department into active mode. The Punjab Health Department has intensified its efforts to save the lives of high-risk pregnant women.
The health department
Civil surgeons, district health and family welfare officers have been alerted and senior medical officers have already been instructed to identify high-risk pregnant women and contact them through phone calls and invite them for check-ups. Also, it should be ensured that they are being given quality care. Along with this, doctors of the Aam Aadmi Clinic of the Health Department and community health officers are being trained so that high-risk pregnant women do not face any kind of difficulty during delivery.
Maternal mortality rate in the month of May was 28.
According to the data of the Health Department, there have been 14 cases of maternal deaths in Punjab during the month of April. However, its number increased to 28 in the month of May. From April 2023 to March 2024, 403 cases of maternal deaths have been reported in Punjab. According to Dr. Avninav Trikha, Director of National Health Mission (NHM), the maternal mortality rate in Punjab, which was 120 a few years ago, has come down to 105 in the last survey.
Dr. Hatinder Kaur, Director of Health and Family Welfare Department, said that we have increased our efforts as compared to earlier. Random calls are being made to high-risk women. Pregnant women have also been instructed to get themselves examined by a medicine specialist every three months.