Mother and child health to be focussed under Tandrust Punjab Mission- Pannu

· Institutional Deliveries to be encouraged

· Despite ample obstetric services Ludhiana registers 7.7% home deliveries while Nawanshahr and Patiala perform best with 0.1%

CHANDIGARH, OCTOBER 22:

Punjab is performing well in case of institutional deliveries but in the last years of second decade of 21st century when medical facilities have reached every nook and corner of the State, it is painful that still some deliveries are happening in the homes. “Home deliveries put the health and life of the mother and the child to risk’’, so under Tandarust Punjab Mission we will endeavour to check the tendency towards home deliveries, informed Mr. KS Pannu, Director, Tandarust Punjab Mission.

He said that the child birth data from April to August 2018 reveals that 3600 out of total 1,37,742 child births took place in Punjab homes, which constitutes 2.6% of the total deliveries. There is a great disparity between district-wise percentage of home deliveries which ranges somewhere between 7.7% to 0.1%.Strangely, the percentage of home deliveries in districts having ample obstetric services and high per capita income like Ludhiana is 7.7% while that in Mansa is 0.3%.

So, the economic status or availability of health services are not the only determinants of low institutional delivery rates but awareness is also a key factor and we under Tandrust Punjab Mission will focus on the same, said Pannu. To begin with, a letter has been written to all the Deputy Commissioners in the State, supported with the district-wise home/institutional delivery data. Subsequently the DCs would chalk out plan of action with the aim of the safe motherhood and greater child survival rate. The data of districts with higher incidence of home deliveries would be regularly monitored to maintain a constant vigil over the scenario.

The districts requiring more efforts include Ludhiana with 7.7% home deliveries, Ferozepur 7.6%, Fazilka 4.7%,Tarntaran 4.6% , SAS Nagar 4.1%, Bathinda 3.9% , Fatehgarh Sahib 3.7% and Amritsar with 3.5 % while moderate work is needed in Faridkot 2.9%,Gurdaspur 2.7%,Moga 2.3%, Barnala 1.4%,Pathankot 1.7% ,Jalandhar 1.3% ,Muktsar 1.2% and Kapurthala having 1.0% home deliveries while relatively better performing districts with home deliveries below 1% include Rupnagar 0.9%,Sangrur 0.7%,Hoshiarpur 0.6%,Mansa 0.3%,Nawanshahr and Patiala 0.1% each.