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News Title India not a good place to be a mother: report
News Contents The 11th �State of the World�s Mothers Report� emphasises the need for large numbers of trained local women to attend to the health needs of women and children in developing countries. It also highlights some success stories �State of the World�s Mothers Report 2010� puts India way down in the list of best places to be a mother -- 73 out of 77 less developed countries. The report, brought out by the child rights organisation Save the Children, singles out the shortage of health workers as the primary reason for the poor health of women and children. The report says that countries that have trained women to deliver care within their communities have seen dramatic drops in child and maternal mortality rates. Bangladesh, for example, has reduced its child mortality rate by 64% since 1990 thanks in part to the recruitment of thousands of female health workers. Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Thailand are other success stories singled out in the report. The lack of trained healthcare workers, particularly in semi-urban and rural areas, is a major reason why India has performed so poorly. There is an estimated shortage of 74,000 Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers in India, while the figure is pegged at 21,066 in the case of Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANM). According to government norms there should be one ASHA worker for every 1,000 people and one ANM among 5,000 people in the plains areas, and 3,000 in rural areas. A quarter of women questioned in 41 developing countries, who currently have no health services, said they go without medical help because they have no access to a female health worker. More than half said they couldn�t afford the cost of treatment. �Women have to be part of the equation when it comes to saving mothers� and children�s lives,� says Simon Wright, Save the Children�s director of health. �Even when mothers face life-threatening situations -- like a labour that�s gone wrong or a baby that�s critically ill -- cultural and traditional reasons can mean it�s impossible for them to seek help from a man. The cost of seeking and receiving healthcare can also prove a major deterrent for poor women in need of medical help during and after pregnancy.� While the Indian government�s policy is to urge women into institutionalised deliveries, the report says that for a modest investment, even women with little formal education can be trained to successfully deliver lifesaving services such as breastfeeding support, post-natal care, vaccines, and antibiotics. �Recent studies have looked at ways to harness the power of women-to-women relationships to improve health outcomes for mothers and children. Such efforts have been especially effective in poor, hard-to-reach communities where people are more likely to become ill, less likely to get appropriate treatment, and often express a strong preference for care close to home,� the report says. It also says that social and cultural barriers stand in the way of better health for women and children. Husbands and elder family members often decide whether a woman may go for healthcare outside the home. Although women are usually the first to notice their own and their children�s health problems, they must overcome the hurdles of decision-making within the household, which can result in significant delays in seeking care and sometimes in denial of permission altogether, the report says. The report cites successful testing of the women-centric approach in Jharkhand and Orissa where women with basic schooling were recruited in the local area and imparted basic healthcare training. �The results were dramatic: by the second and third years of the trial, the newborn mortality rate in the areas where participatory women�s groups existed had fallen by 45%. These areas also saw a significant drop (57%) in depression among mothers.� The report recommends: � Train and deploy more health workers -- especially midwives and other female health workers. An additional 4.3 million health workers are needed in developing countries. � Provide better incentives to attract and retain qualified female health workers. These include better pay, training, support, protection and opportunities for career growth and professional recognition. � Invest in girls� education. Increased investments in girls� education are essential -- not just to enlarge the pool of young women who are qualified to become health workers but also to empower future mothers to be stronger and wiser advocates for their own health and the health of their children. � Strengthen basic health systems and design healthcare programmes to better target the poorest and most marginalised mothers and children. Thousands of children die every day in developing countries because health systems are grossly under-funded and cannot meet the needs of the people. infochangeindia.org
 




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