Safe motherhood has taken a big hit in Madhya Pradesh with the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) – the most important indicator for maternal health – swinging up by 10 points in the duration from 2018 to 2020 compared to 2017-19 period.
MMR is the number of death of women due to complications in pregnancy or childbirth per lakh live births and an upswing indicates the additional deaths due to these reasons in the particular duration.
Madhya Pradesh has reported an MMR of 173 in 2018-20, compared to 163 in 2017-19, according to the recently released Special Bulletin on Maternal Mortality in India for 2018-20 under the Sample Registration System (SRS) of the Registrar General of India. These figures mean that for every lakh live births in the state, 173 mothers succumb to complications.
Also, with this upswing, Madhya Pradesh has become the second most unsafe state for mothers, surpassing Uttar Pradesh, which has reported an MMR of 167 – the same as it reported in 2017-19. Assam with an MMR of 195 continues to be the worst state in the country, though it reported a reduction of 10 points from 2017-19, when it had an MMR of 205.
Actually, Madhya Pradesh is the only major state that has reported an upswing in MMR figures. The smaller states reporting an upswing are Haryana from 96 to 110 (14 points) and Uttarakhand from 101 to 103 (2 points).
MMR and child mortality rates are considered important health indices as they indicate the situation of the health of women and children, nutritional status as well as the level of efficacy of the health services available to people.
Given that Madhya Pradesh also has highest infant mortality rate (43 per 1000 live births, according to SRS 2020 data) as well as highest neonatal and under-five mortality rates in the country (according to SRS 2019 data), the increase in maternal mortality rate is certainly a cause of worry. This has again underlined the need for Madhya Pradesh to keep up its efforts to improve mother-child health and nutrition scenario, experts feel.
India achieves target of MMR below 100
At the national level, it is good news as the MMR now stands at 97 per lakh live births, down six points from 103 in 2017-19. With this, the country has achieved the target of MMR below 100 by year 2020 as mentioned in its national health policy of 2017.
Union health and family welfare minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted, “Significant decline in the Maternal Mortality Ratio from 130 in 2014-16 to 97 per lakh live births in 2018-20. The various healthcare initiatives of PM Narendra Modi Ji's government to ensure quality maternal and reproductive care have helped tremendously in bringing down MMR.”
The global MMR target under sustainable development goals (SDG) of World Health Organisation (WHO) is, however, MMR of 70 per lakh live births by 2030.
According to the latest report, eight states in the country have managed to reduce the MMR to below 100. They included the five south Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, apart from Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh show huge improvement
According to the recently released special bulletin, states of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have shown considerable improvement with 28 points and 23 points respectively. In 2017-19, Rajasthan had a MMR of 141, which has now gone down to 113, whereas Chhattisgarh went down from 160 to 137. Odisha has also shown a good improvement with a dip of 17 points from 136 to 119.
Kerala continues to be the best performing state in the country, with maternal mortality ratio dipping to 19 per lakh live births compared to 30 in 2017-19. Maharashtra with MMR of 33 and Telangana and Andhra Pradesh with MMRs of 43 and 45 respectively are other better performing states.
