Punjab Goverment To Set Up Midwifery-Led Care Units At Public Healthcare Facilities

Chandigarh: With an aim to provide the best possible maternal and newborn health care services in the state, the Punjab government has planned to establish midwifery-led care units (MLCUs) at all the public healthcare facilities soon.

The state health and family welfare minister Dr Balbir Singh said that MLCUs would be established to promote natural birthing, and added that an MLCU was already operational in Mata Kaushalya Hospital, Patiala on a pilot basis. A total of 138 normal births had been facilitated by midwives in the labour room and midwifery-led birthing unit till date.

Midwifery Training Institute in Patiala

Dr Balbir Singh said that the health department had set up a Midwifery Training Institute in Patiala to expand this programme throughout the state. This institute had been set up as per the Indian government's guidelines on midwifery services in India to prioritise investment in a dedicated cadre of professional midwives, through bringing in a new cadre – the nurse practitioner in midwifery (NPM). In this institute, training would be provided to midwifery educators who, in turn, would develop the cadre of NPM.

The health minister said that this initiative would lead to a compassionate and respectful birth experience for a pregnant woman in government health facilities. The NPM would provide skilled, maternal, reproductive and newborn child-related healthcare services in a respectful manner to accomplish the sustainable development goals for maternal and newborn well-being.

Significance of midwifery training

State programme officer, maternal and child health, Dr Inderdeep Kaur said that the National Midwifery Training Institute at Patiala would serve as a model teaching institute and pedagogic resource centre for the midwifery training for several states. New cadre of NPM would play a pivotal role in curbing the vast prevalence of C-sections and providing respectful maternity care, she added.