Going by the Health Management Information System (HMIS) data, Tamil Nadu’s Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) recorded a significant drop during 2023-24, declining by over six points to reach 45.5 per one lakh live births. In fact, during the same period, Virudhunagar Health Unit District (HUD) recorded nil maternal deaths, according to health officials.
As per HMIS data, MMR has dropped from 52.2 per one lakh live births during 2022-2023 to 45.5 during 2023-24. The State’s MMR rose during the COVID-19 pandemic years.
Shilpa Prabhakar Satish, Mission Director, National Health Mission (NHM), Tamil Nadu, while speaking at a workshop on ‘Connecting the missing dots’, said the State had achieved the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for maternal mortality (to reduce global MMR to less than 70 per one lakh live births) way back and well ahead of the target due to the efforts of various persons including village health nurses at the field level, maternal child health officers at the district level, deputy and joint directors and obstetricians and gynaecologists.
“Earlier, MMR dropped each year by two to three points. However, during 2023-24, the MMR dropped by 6.7 points. This reduction in maternal deaths tells us that closely monitoring each pregnant woman can help achieve our target of nil preventable deaths. If Kerala has brought down their MMR to below 18, we also can do it,” she said.
The official pointed out that Virudhunagar HUD recorded nil maternal deaths from April 2023 to March 2024. She raised the need for close coordination not only with secondary and tertiary care institutions but also private hospitals.
Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine T.S. Selvavinayagam said that the State had already achieved the SDG but this was not enough as many western countries have single digit MMR.
Nearly 60% to 75% of causes for maternal deaths are connected to four risk factors - pregnancy-induced hypertension, postpartum haemorrhage, sepsis, and unmet need for family planning services, he said.
“We need to arrive at certain basic risk factors such as elderly pregnant women, those with cardiac issues, already known hypertension and teens,” he said. He laid emphasis on picking up already known risk factors early and extending appropriate care at all levels.
“From a public health and primary care approach, we need to prevent the emergence of risk factors well before conception,” he said.
Ms. Shilpa, while talking about the revamped Pregnancy and Infant Cohort Monitoring and Evaluation portal, said that the health status of every pregnant woman can be viewed on the dashboard.
“Through 104 health helpline, calls will be made to high risk pregnant women three times during the antenatal period to inquire about their health. This is over and above what is done at the field level,” she said. She also raised the need to ensure that there are no teenage pregnancies in the State.
