Pushing for Better Maternal Health Facilities
Channel: VideoVolunteers
Date: 2013-12-27

"When I was about deliver my son, I had to hire a private car to take me and bring me back from the hospital. The same situation occurred when my daughter was about to be born. This time I paid Rs.800 for the car. The ambulance didn't come", says a woman who lives in Mankadevi village in Madhya Pradesh. 

VV-PACS Correspondent Anita Dhurve reports from the village. She says that recently seven pregnant women were not sent ambulances when they went into labour. Some have even ended up delivering in the cars they are forced to hire. Others end up paying money in hospitals when they shouldn't have to.

Madhya Pradesh's statistics on Maternal mortality and infant mortality have little to boast about. They stand at 269 per 100,000 live births and 59 per 1000 live births respectively. Both figures are worse than the national averages. 

(http://nrhm.gov.in/nrhm-in-state/state-wise-information/madhya-pradesh.html#health_profile_mp)

Maternal health depends on several socio-economic factors that range from women not getting nutritional food their entire live; myths resulting in unsafe practices to lack of facilities like hospitals and roads. 

The Government of Madhya Pradesh for its part has put in place certain schemes such as the Janani Suraksha Yojana, an ambulance service for pregnant women. The implementation of these as well as ending negligence that women face in hospitals still need more work.

Please help these women get access to safe childbirth facilities

Please Call the health officer at Tamia Block on 7149272278/108 and ask him to ensure that women in the village have facilities to ensure safe child birth.

About the Partnership: The Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) Programme and Video Volunteers have come together to create the Community Correspondents Network. The videos generated by the network will be able to highlight voices from the margins, providing skills to social communicators to provide advocacy tools to community based organizations.