New Tool to Reduce Maternal Mortality | 29 Jul 2019

The use of Non-pneumatic Anti- Shock garment (NASG) controls blood loss due to postpartum haemorrhage (PPH), thus saving the lives of new mothers.

• Postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) leads to continuous and excessive bleeding. The rapid loss of blood because of PPH reduces the body’s blood pressure and can even cause death.
• The NASG applies pressure to the lower body and abdomen, thereby forcing the blood that was getting accumulated in the pelvic area to other essential organs of the body. Thus, NASG quickly stabilizes patient and gives enough time to doctors for treatment.
• NASG is part of a local initiative named Sahara, by the district’s development officer (Arun Mahesh Babu) of Ahmedabad district in Gujarat. The officer has started the initiative in November 2018.
• While there were 8 maternal deaths in the district because of PPH between January and November 2018, since the introduction of this initiative there have been no PPH deaths.
  
  • A lot of mothers were anaemic in the Ahmedabad district because of poor nutrition. This weakness compounds the damage caused by excessive and sudden bleeding.
  • Moreover, women delivering children in rural areas are far away from district hospitals when such complications occur. Data showed that almost 30% of maternal deaths in the state were because of PPH and these primarily took place within the first 4 to 24 hours after childbirth.
• Today, 40 PHCs (Primary Health Care Centres) in Ahmedabad have an NASG suit each - each suit can be used 140 times - and the government has spent Rs 14,500 per suit under the Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram (JSSK).

• According to Sample Registration System results of 2016-17, Gujarat’s IMR (per 1,000 live births) was 30 and MMR (per 100,000 live births) was 91 — better than the national averages but quite high for a relatively more prosperous state.

Source: IE