Harish holds teleconference with pregnant women in Siddipet, encourages institutional deliveries

Assuring all support to pregnant women, the Health Minister called upon them to be part of the State's endeavor to change the way the hospitals were functioning until now.

Siddipet: With an objective to improve institutional deliveries in government hospitals, Health Minister T Harish Rao, who is in New Delhi, on Wednesday spoke to pregnant women across the district over a teleconference.

Assuring all support to pregnant women, the Health Minister called upon them to be part of the State’s endeavor to change the way the hospitals were functioning until now. He talked to around 4,900 people including pregnant women in Siddipet, ANMs, Asha workers, and other health department officials.

Rao said that the ANMs and Asha workers would take them in Amma Vodi vehicles for health checkups every time besides getting issued free medicines for them. Pointing out that TIFFA scanning machines were recently installed in government hospitals at Gajwel and Siddipet, he said pregnant women used to visit private diagnostic centres for the scanning for which they used to pay Rs 3,000.

The Minister said government hospital doctors would give 180 iron tablets to pregnant women which would help them in overcoming anemia. Rao has directed Anganwadi workers to serve fresh eggs, milk and nutritious food to pregnant women. The Minister asked ANMs and Asha workers to sensitise women on how expensive it would be if they visited private hospitals for treatment. He also asked them to educate the women on the difference between C-sections and normal deliveries and the percentage in private and government hospitals. Rao suggested them to feed the milk to the infants immediately after birth so that the children by stronger when they grow up.