Tamil Nadu government launches war room to reduce maternal mortality

Chennai: During the first meeting of the “State Level Task Force” for reducing maternal mortality, it was decided to set up a “War Room” at the National Health Mission office, comprising a dedicated team of 6 doctors, 2 each from DME, DMS and DPH and technical officers led by an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) who can fully concentrate on comprehensive pre-birth planning 24 hours a day.

The “War Room” will oversee birth planning through ‘102’ call centers and the task force urged the DME, DMS and DPH to establish a detailed pre-birth planning mechanism for each birth, including private sector data. decided at the secretariat on Tuesday.

DPH was asked to carefully look at the availability of resources including availability of doctors, nurses, medicines, blood etc. at the PHCs where deliveries are planned and the task force concluded that women with specific risk factors including diabetes, hypertension, anemia and other health conditions should only be scheduled for delivery at Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (CEmONC) centers that are properly equipped to handle any emergency situations.

The meeting where key stakeholders came together to tackle the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) was chaired by MMR Task Force Chairman and Additional Chief Secretary Supriya Sahu, Principal Secretary D Karthikeyan, Social Welfare Department Secretary Jayashree Muralidharan and senior officials of the Ministry of Health. and Family Welfare Department.

MMR refers to the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births and Tamil Nadu continues to make significant progress in reducing MMR. According to the latest 2020 Sample Registration System (SRS) data, Tamil Nadu’s MMR is 54 per 100,000 live births, below the national average of 97 per 100,000.

The Maternal Mortality Survey launched by the state in 2004 identified the top five causes of maternal mortality. They are postpartum hemorrhage (20%), hypertensive disorders during pregnancy (19%), sepsis (10%), heart disease (9%), abortion (4%) and others (38%), according to an official press release.