“Promoting Maternal and Child Health through Mother’s Club”

Objectives:

• To enhance the quality of life of pregnant women & children and reduce Maternal and Infant Mortality.

The project was Supported by Kindermissionswerk – Germany, CHAI has initiated a pilot project “Promoting MCH through Mothers’ Clubs” in 7 states (Jammu & Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand) – providing comprehensive maternal health care (antenatal/ Intranatal/ postnatal care, nutrition support, child care, mothers’ club for awareness creation, etc.) to 1000 pregnant women, identified through CHAI’s ten Member Hospitals in rural areas, over a period of 1000 days – from pregnancy to the child’s 2^nd birth day. The project is also an Action Research to refine the model for sustainable scaling up.

The project is being implemented with 1000 pregnant women, following WHO guidelines of 1000 days’ follow-up through 10 Member Institutions across 6 States of India. The Member Institutions are Amar Jyothi Health Centre, Ranchi, Jharkhand; Fatima Hospital, Ranchi, Jharkhand;   DSS Amal Jyothi Health Centre, Lalitpur, Uttar Pradesh; St. Mary’s Hospital, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh; MVSS, Sagar, Madhya Pradesh;  Ashaniketan Hospital, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh;  St. Paul’s Health Centre, Dehradun, Uttarkhand; St. Joseph’s Hospital, Baramulla, Jammu & Kashmir; Paalana Hospital, Palakkad, Kerla  and Amala Institute of Medical Sciences, Thrissur, Kerala.

The above-mentioned ten member institutions identified and registered 1000 pregnant women from the most marginalized communities. And they provided comprehensive maternal and child health services in the respective areas. Mothers’ Club was introduced as a strategy to interact and orient the mothers on the possible risks, preventable strategies and cautions to be taken from antenatal period to intranatal and postnatal period. The Mothers’ Club meetings were and are conducted by medical practitioners at regular intervals. The meetings helped to effectively follow up with the mothers and children on nutrition, vaccination, immunization, breastfeeding, and medication of mothers and infants. The follow-up and observation will continue till October 2017.