With sustainability as a goal moving forward, and with an intention to achieving Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs, preventing child mortality becomes an important issue to deal with. Every pregnancy is a special occasion and every pregnant woman in the country deserves a fair share of prenatal care and protection, irrespective of one’s caste, creed, race or religion. Pregnancy, while a joyous occasion, is also a vulnerable phase – where complications could lead to stillbirths, miscarriages, or worse, the death of the woman bearing the child.
To deal with pregnancies in a better manner, the Central government announced the Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan – a scheme designed to offer prenatal care to women across the nation.
About the scheme
The Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan is a fixed day strategy implemented every month across the country. During the implementation of this scheme, quality maternal health services are made to be provided as a part of both prenatal and antenatal care.
Under the implementation of the scheme, a minimum package of antenatal care services is provided to the beneficiaries on the 9th day of every month at the Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan clinics to ensure that every pregnant woman receives at least one checkup in the 2nd or the 3rd trimester of pregnancy. If the 9th day of the month is a Sunday or a public holiday, then the Clinic visit should be organized on the next working day.
Who are the target beneficiaries of the scheme?
The programme’s target beneficiaries are pregnant women who are in the second or the third trimester of pregnancy.
What are the services offered?
- All beneficiaries visiting the facility are first registered in a separate register for Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA).
- Once registrations are done, ANM and SN ensure that all basic lab investigations are done before the beneficiary is examined by the OBGY or the Medical officer.
- The report of the investigations should ideally be handed over within an hour and before the beneficiaries are meeting the doctors for further checkups.
- This process will ensure the identification of High-Risk status in women like anaemia, gestational diabetes, hypertension, infections, etc. at the time of examination itself.
- In certain cases where additional investigations are required, beneficiaries are to be advised to get those investigations done and share the reports during PMSMA or the routine ANC checkup.
- Lab investigations include USG and all basic investigations, Hb, Urine albumin, RBS (Dipstick), Rapid Malaria test, Rapid VDRL test, Blood grouping, CBC ESR, USG.
Public Health Facilities to access the services offered under the PMSMA
- Rural areas – Primary health centres, community health centres, rural hospitals, sub-district hospitals, district hospitals, medical college hospitals.
- Urban areas – urban dispensaries, urban health posts, maternity homes.
Summing it up
Pregnancy can be a delicate phase in the life of a couple. With such assistance from the government, people can be a lot more aware and a lot more informed at vulnerable times of pregnancy. This will not only ensure the safety of the mother and child but will also contribute to their perfect health in the long run.
