Thursday, Jun 8, 2023

Karimnagar MCHC is safe zone for normal deliveries

Though MCHC is a referral health centre for surgeries, it motivates pregnant women to opt for normal deliveries

By Raghu Paithari

Published Date - 12:05 AM, Thu - 7 January 21

Karimnagar MCHC is safe zone for normal deliveries

Karimnagar: The Mother and Child Health Centre (MCHC) in the city is turning out to be the place to go for women who want to have normal deliveries not only because of the convenience but also because the doctors at the centre encourage women to go in for normal deliveries.

Unlike private maternity hospitals where deliveries through caesarean section are the norm, doctors at the MCHC have been motivating pregnant women and explaining the health benefits of normal deliveries.

As a result, the number of normal deliveries in the hospital has gone up, with 60 per cent of the 20 deliveries that take place in the 150-bed hospital every day being normal. It did take a dip to 40 per cent though during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Impressed by the doctors’ initiative, pregnant women from different areas of the erstwhile Karimnagar district and adjacent Adilabad and Nizamabad districts are making a beeline to the centre. According to hospital records, of the 7,528 deliveries that took place in 2020, 2,625 were normal deliveries, speaking volumes of the success of the hospital staff in convincing women to opt for normal deliveries.

Speaking to Telangana Today, hospital administration officer Dr Aleem said since the MCHC was a referral hospital, critical cases are sent to MCHC and they have to go for surgery to save mother and child. “Despite all these factors, we have been trying to increase normal deliveries through counseling to pregnant women,” he said.

When pregnant women approach the hospital for a monthly checkup, they are counselled about the advantages of normal deliveries as well as the disadvantages they would face with caesarian section deliveries.

“Every day, 20 pregnant women are given counseling. This, however, was temporarily suspended due to the pandemic. We intend to resume the counseling programme,” he said.
Lactating mothers, Dr Aleem said, have to take rest for three months if they undergo caesarean section. In some cases, women also develop post-natal complications, he said, adding that the women undergoing counseling are informed of all these factors.

“If the first delivery is normal, the second one is also invariably normal, and we explain all these things to pregnant women as well as their attendants,” Dr Aleem said.