Tamil Nadu - Madurai

PHCs account for 30 per cent of deliveries

MADURAI: Thirty per cent of the deliveries during the past 10 months this year have taken place in Primary Health Centres, and the monthly average per PHC has gone up to 17 in October from 15 deliveries in September.

The target is to achieve a monthly average of 30 deliveries for each PHC by motivating pregnant women, doctors and the medical staff to utilise the upgraded facilities, S. Elango, Director of Public Health, said here on Saturday. Speaking to The Hindu after a review meeting, he said the total number of deliveries so far this year in 1,421 PHCs in the State was close to 2.4 lakh. The State-wide figure for October alone was 23,590 deliveries.

Dr. Elango held a ‘motivation meeting’ for medical officers in Madurai district to upscale the service delivery for rural people and to know the functioning of the PHCs.

Districts such as Vellore, Villupuram, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri were doing remarkably well in maternal care and setting a new trend in conducting child deliveries, he said. “We found that the motivation of the staff is a critical factor for success. So we sent a team of medical officers from Madurai district to Vellore to see how the PHCs were able to do well there.”

Dr. Elango said the Caesarean section introduced in select PHCs was another positive factor, leading to more deliveries. It also increased public confidence in the system. He said the medical officers of Madurai were administered a pledge to make the district ‘maternal mortality free.’

“Another important point to be remembered by doctors/nurses is ‘kangaroo technique.’ While performing a delivery, they should ensure that the first contact of the infant must be with the mother. So they should keep the newborn on mother’s chest, and that will result in good biochemical changes in the first few minutes,” he said.

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