Awareness campaign in Haryana to strengthen post and ante-natal care

NEW DELHI, FEB 5. A three day awareness campaign on high risk pregnancies was organised in Jhajhar district of Haryana as part of the SMARThealth pregnancy project from Feb 3 to 5, 2020.  This follows a similar exercise done in villages in Guntur for high risk mothers and ASHA workers.  The campaign was part of an endeavour to strengthen post and ante-natal care for pregnant women.   

“It is important to educate mothers and ASHAs about high risk pregnancies and also about the risk of high blood pressure and sugar that sometimes accompanies it. It is important for women to register for post and ante-natal care and also to have a rich diet with iron and vitamin supplements,”  says Shobi Nagaraj, who is in charge of the SMARThealth pregnancy project.

The pilot  project being implemented with Oxford University support has an intervention component as part of which ASHA workers will use electronic tablets to create awareness on high risk pregnancies and refer the  high-risk cases to the primary health centres.  

An awareness booklet produced on the occasion was distributed to the expectant mothers and the ASHAs.

“Most women here are anaemic and it is important that they eat well,” said Eldo Rajan, program manager, SMARThealh pregnanacy. “ we hope that women will register for post-natal care after this awareness drive and will take precautions to avoid high risk pregnancies”. 

The Medical Officer (In charge) of the Badli PHC, Dr. Sangeetha Khurana, said that having these kind of awareness campaigns was very important to raise awareness among both expectant mothers and those who  have just delivered babies.

“ Women do not come out for 40 days after pregnancy and so, it is important for them to know the do’s and don’ts regarding post and ante-natal care,”  She said.

Please click to get the booklet here.