Health and Tech: Telangana tops in institutional deliveries

The statistic of 100 percent institutional deliveries means that not a single pregnant woman in Telangana in 2021-22 has undergone a delivery at home

Hyderabad: Mother and child health care initiatives have been the cornerstone of public health policies of the State government that has enabled Telangana to become a top performer in the country. In the recent Health Management Information System (HMIS) report of 2021-22, which was released by the union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), Telangana is the only Indian State to have scored 100 percent in having institutional deliveries.

The statistic of 100 percent institutional deliveries means that not a single pregnant woman in Telangana in 2021-22 has undergone a delivery at home. Based on the HMIS data, except for Lakshadweep, no other Indian State in the country can boast of having zero percent home delivery in the country.

---

The tag of 100 percent institutional deliveries also means that all the pregnant women of Telangana, either in private or government hospitals, had access to skilled care givers to guide and if necessary perform emergency cesarean section and enable pregnant women to safely deliver.

As per the HMIS data in 2021-2022, throughout the country, a total of 4.5 percent of births are taking place at home and a large population is assisted by unskilled persons. It is estimated that nearly 15 present mothers will develop one or other life-threatening obstetric complications during the intrapartum and immediate post-partum period, which makes it necessary for the presence of skilled professionals at the time of delivery.

The HMIS data has also indicated the success of healthcare protocols that are in place while implementing the KCR Kits initiative for pregnant women. In 2021-22, the total live births that took place in Telangana was 6, 06, 638 out of which the number of infants who were less than 2.5 kilograms of weight was 3, 792 while the number of newborns who were breastfed within an hour of the birth was 4, 89, 875, which is nearly 81 percent.

Much of the credit for the improvement in institutional deliveries in Telangana is due to a sustained focus on mother and child health through the KCR Kits scheme, nutritional kits for pregnant women, financial incentives for pregnant women undergoing delivery in government hospitals, infrastructure upgrades in ICU facilities for infants and upgrade of labor rooms.

The HMIS has also placed Telangana as the best performing State in India for achieving 100 percent in administering vaccines for Measles and Rubella (MR), Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV), Hepatitis-B and pentavalent vaccine for Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus and Hepatitis B.