Free Childbirth Care: Provided free childbirth care in our health centre to 319 women whose families were experiencing acute financial hardship.
Rapid Antigen Tests: Conducted Rapid Antigen Tests for 1,350 out of 2,300 women at the time of admission and for 500 outpatients (168 positive cases).
COVID-Positive Birthing Suite: Established a COVID-positive birthing suite where 25 women gave birth.
Nutritional Support: Provided 574 pregnant women with roasted gram flour (chana sattu) and 643 malnourished children (56% were girls) of poor families with monthly nutritional supplements.
Awareness Campaigns: Held 750 village-based meetings of small groups of women to spread awareness about the Coronavirus.
Prenatal Care: Helped around 1,000 women access basic prenatal care, screening for anemia and hypertension at the village level.
Mental Health Consultations: Arranged weekly mental health consultations by telemedicine in partnership with the Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi, from July 2020 to August 2022.
Emergency Food Packets: Distributed 25 emergency food packets to families where the breadwinner died of COVID-19.
Parvati's Safe Delivery
Parvati Devi of Bansgari village in Chandankiari was in the final stages of her pregnancy. Her husband, Mahadev Kisku, is a poor tribal marginal farmer who worked as a contract labourer before the lockdown. Since March 2020, he had been struggling to support his family. Fortunately, Parvati had the support of the swasthya sakhi of her village, Sumitra, and monthly visits by our Community Health Worker, Sabita.
During a visit, Sabita checked Parvati's blood pressure and found it to be dangerously high. Upon further questioning, she discovered that Parvati had other symptoms of pre-eclampsia—a life-threatening condition during pregnancy that can cause convulsions in the mother, such as nausea, hazy vision, and headaches.
Although Parvati was not experiencing labour pains and was a few weeks away from her delivery date, her family was reluctant to take her to our health centre. Thanks to the persuasive efforts of Sabita and Sumitra, her husband brought her to the centre. She stayed with us for a few days while her blood pressure was brought under control, and she had a normal delivery and a healthy baby.
