SRIKAKULAM: The recent death of a 26-year-old woman owing to multiple ailments after she delivered a stillborn child has brought the issues related to high-risk pregnancy in Srikakulam district.
The series of initiatives undertaken by the health authorities appears to have fallen short of the requirement if the records available with the health officials are the indications.
Statistics have revealed that 30 per cent of the pregnant women in the district who underwent tests have been found with high-risk symptoms.
Already, the health officials are implementing a series of measures to check MMR and IMR including promoting institutional delivery, 108 ambulance facility and Talli Bida vehicles to shift the expecting mothers to hospitals, apart from keeping a close watch on the high-risk pregnancy cases.
However, the records suggest that 264 infants and 22 new mothers died in the district last year.
As many as 572 expecting mothers have identified with high-risk symptoms of the 1,921 women who have undergone 32 diagnostic tests at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) Hospital as part of the Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA) programme that was launched in July 2016.
Further, more than 50 per cent of the total pregnant women who underwent test last summer were identified as high-risk cases.
At least 57 women tested as high-risk cases of the 72 at RIMS hospital in June last year, said to be the highest ever to be reported from the district since the launch of the PMSMA scheme.
However, the health officials say that the figure is better this year so far as only 14 of the total 53 women found with high-risk symptoms in January this year.
The officials say that they keep a close watch on high-risk cases and ensure that the women are admitted to the hospital prior to their expected delivery date. The complicated cases are being referred to Visakhapatnam.
“As per out observation, many pregnant women with high-risk symptoms come to the hospitals after the labour pain starts. In such cases, life risk is more,” says district coordinator for hospital services B Surya Rao.
Disrict medical and health officer S Tirupathi Rao says that health workers are assigned to the high-risk cases to keep a close watch on their health parameters.
“The high-risk patients are advised to admit themselves to the hospital a week prior to their expected delivery date for better monitoring. The patients are referred to better hospitals if needed to ensure that the delivery is performed under the supervision of specialists. The list of the identified high-risk cases will be displayed at each PHCs,” he says.