High Dependency Unit for pregnant women declines Maternal Mortality Ratio by 50%

Nagpur: Many of the critical pregnant women needs care in an intensive care unit (ICU) or high dependency unit (HDU). While explaining the need of HDU,  president of Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI) Dr Alpesh Gandhi, said that pregnant ladies do not have any dedicated kind of maternal critical care as a result, critical illness in pregnancy can be devastating for mother and baby. Government of India realised the importance of HDU, and they made it mandatory for every public hospital to set up an HDU at their place.

“By next 2 years, around 400-500 HDU will be set up in the country. Aim is to reduce the burden on ICU as around 60-70% women will be treated then and there at HDU”, he added.

“Establishment of well managed high dependency in health care facilities dealing with high volumes of high-risk maternity cases reduces the maternal mortality by 50% and results in improved maternal outcomes”, stated Dr Gandhi who was invited as the chief guest at Nagpur Obstetrics and Gynaecology Society conference on Sunday.

Also, one of the major health issues that the women in India are facing is high Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. Though, it has come down to some level, but still there’s a long way to go. The lacuna could be understood by the fact that out of these many maternal deaths, nearly 80% are preventive. But lapses in antenatal care and post-natal care programme, through which high-risk pregnancies could be treated in time, makes it difficult to prevent. These issues were also brought to fore by the Dr Alpesh Gandhi.

Dr Gandhi, who is renowned Gynaecologist & Obstetrician said, “Although a slow, but from past few decades, we have seen a downfall in the number of MMR. Mostly, because almost 80% of women are now giving birth in hospitals, both public and private. If you look at decade-old numbers, the percentage was just about 40%.”

Noted that several initiatives in health and nutrition, like the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) launched in 2005 contributed to a surge in institutional deliveries from 38.7 per cent in 2005-06 to 78.9 per cent in 2015-16. Here the mothers were also given cash incentives with delivery and post-delivery care.

To this Dr Gandhi said, “Despite of all, we have also observed many of the peripheral hospitals and primary health care centres lack the resources to handle complications related to child birth, leading to the spike in the MMR. This is a shame for our country.”

However, along with MMR, Dr Gandhi stated that breast, cervical cancers, which are preventable among women, is increasing enormously. Breast, cervical, ovarian and uterine cancer, account for more than 70% of the cancers in women in India, and that is shocking.

“Sad part is these deaths from Cancer could be averted. Because these women are approaching the doctors at critical stage, there is not much possibility of survival. You may get shock to here that if such women get timely treatment, nearly 90% of them could be saved”, said Dr Gandhi.