Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

`Respect and support midwives'

R. Sujatha

International Day of Midwife to be observed today "Their working and living conditions are not on a par with international standards"

CHENNAI: On the occasion of the International Day of Midwife, which is to be observed on Friday, community health activists have called for more support and respect for midwives as an essential part of the community.

Midwives ensure safe motherhood, prevent maternal and neonatal deaths and disabilities that could result from pregnancy and childbirth. In India, for every 5,000 persons a midwife is posted, but their working and living conditions are not on a par with international standards.

In rural areas, midwives are also expected to work for the implementation of the Five Year Plan programmes such as reproductive child health, malaria eradication, nutrition and other public health activities, which diverts their attention from their main work.

A midwife's job includes plenty of travelling, monitoring the antenatal care of pregnant mothers, screening for reproductive tract infections and delivering babies. They are also responsible for the health of postnatal mothers and newborns and for encouraging mothers to adopt family planning methods.

"We are slowly understanding the practice of midwifery, which ensures safe motherhood. This woman is specially trained, and in places with no doctors she does all the work. She works in the sub-centres of primary health centres. As ambulances are available only in PHCs, in remote centres she has to use vehicles such as bullock carts or tractors [for transport] and seldom is she reimbursed," says Alamelu Venkatraman, Zonal Secretary of the Society of Midwives.

"In Tamil Nadu, a midwife is better off. She is given a scooter or moped to go on her rounds." But, since she is only a part of the health unit and not a member of the panchayat she does not enjoy certain privileges and must depend on the panchayat for support to safely transport a pregnant mother to the nearest PHC. Ms. Venkatraman's study on midwives four years ago revealed that the Vellore and Saidapet blocks alone had 6,800 midwives.

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