Mysuru: Dr. Rajendra Kumar, Medical Superintendent of Cheluvamba Women and Children’s Hospital in the city has said, the ‘Midwifery Initiative,’ a programme aimed at increasing normal delivery and controlling the delivery through caesarean (C-Section) has been successfully implemented in the district.

He was addressing the gathering at a programme organised to wish good luck for the first batch of successful candidates of ‘Midwifery Initiative’ organised by Cheluvamba Hospital in association with Aastrika Foundation at the Platinum Jubilee auditorium  of Mysore Medical College and Research Institute (MMC&RI) at J.K. Ground in city yesterday.

The training was conducted at the first of its kind State Midwifery Training Institute opened at Cheluvamba Hospital.

Dr. Rajendra Kumar said that the programme is held to train the health staff and nurses to reduce the rate of delivery through caesarean (C-Section) and encourage normal delivery. The successful trainees of the first batch will be putting the plans into action, by converting the high-risk C-Section delivery to normal delivery.

In the first batch, 20 nurses were provided training for one-year. They will be executing the plans at respective taluk-levels, in compliance with the National Health Index to bring down the annual number of C-Section deliveries to less than 20 percent at the district-level maternity hospitals.  However, normal deliveries are being performed at the District and Taluk headquarters, while risky cases are referred to Cheluvamba Hospital. Hence, in Cheluvamba Hospital alone 35 to 40 percent of deliveries are performed through C-Section. To address this, nurses were trained to give impetus to normal delivery, said Dr. Rajendra Kumar.

Deputy Director (Maternal Health), Health and Family Welfare Department Dr. Rajkumar said that, on an average, among one lakh expectant mothers, 69 are losing their lives. While the rate of C-Section delivery at Government Hospitals is 100:40, it is in the range of 60 to 70 at private hospitals. Among them, about 15 to 20 percent are high risk deliveries. If adequate precautions are taken, such cases can be converted to normal delivery.

 L. Ravi, Principal of District Training Centre, Health and Family Welfare Department, Dr. Lakshmikanth, HoD of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Cheluvamba Hospital, RMO Shivaramakrishna and Dr. Savitha, HoD of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Bangalore Medical College were present.