Holistic antenatal care for rural areas - challenges and solutions

Background: Several factors play important role in expectant mothers seeking Antenatal Care in rural areas like socioeconomic status, availability of modern medical facilities, transport etc. Lack of these factors keep her away from early registration and make her and baby prone for complications. Objective- Community based holistic management of pregnancy and its outcome to reduce maternal and perinatal mortality and malnutrition in rural areas. Methods: It is a retrospective record based analysis from rural hospital from January 2009 to August 2016. Pregnant women from 52 remote villages were registered. Holistic antenatal care was provided in the community. High risk mothers were identified and treated at hospital. Result: Total deliveries in study period were 4930, 37.11% were identified as high risk mothers. Maternal mortality Rate (MMR) was nil, perinatal mortality was 1.99%.Percentage of LBW (LowBirthWeight) was 34.34% & progressive increase in institutional deliveries. Conclusion: This study demonstrated the effectiveness of community-based holistic antenatal care due to functional modern medical infrastructure, trained staff at rural hospital and a strong community network. It has created a strong foundation to plan a prospective study.