CHENNAI – Dr Teres Cuba looked at a mother who had just given birth to a baby, lying on the stretcher. A nurse yelled that she was losing blood quickly.
“Her blood pressure and pulse rate are dropping!” someone else shouted.
Realising this was a case of postpartum haemorrhage, Dr Cuba asked the nurse to administer oxytocin, massaged the patient’s uterus and checked for continued bleeding. The mother’s life was ultimately saved.
That the mother on the stretcher was a mannequin, and that this was a simulation exercise in a training programme to handle obstetrics emergencies, did not diminish Dr Cuba’s sense of achievement.
“I want to be as good as I can get at dealing with obstetric emergencies – practice makes perfect,” the 38-year-old said.
As a medical officer in a primary healthcare centre in Paramakudi block in Ramnathapuram district of Tamil Nadu, she is at the front line of the state’s drive to improve maternal health outcomes.
The training Dr Cuba and her colleagues took part in in November was organised by Singapore’s healthcare group SingHealth and non-profit Singapore International Foundation (SIF). The local doctors and nurses are expected to share their learnings with other healthcare workers throughout the state.
Mission-minded doctors like Dr Cuba have bolstered Tamil Nadu’s drive to eliminate maternal deaths during childbirth.
The state in India’s south has steadily shrunk maternal mortality in the past decade, now recording 35 deaths per 100,000 live births. This is the second-best performance in India after Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, both at 30 deaths per 100,000 live births.
Including Telangana and Karnataka, the average maternal mortality in these five southern states is 42 – far lower than India’s average of 88.
While maternal death rates are on the decline in states like Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Assam, they are still above 100.
For the southern outlier states, the secret sauce is an unglamorous systemic focus on maternal health.
Having more doctors, nurses, training courses, medical centres and equipment and ambulances, has made a difference, as have grassroots awareness campaigns.
In addition, socio-economic advantages like better women’s education, family support, sanitation and good roads have contributed to this track record, thanks to decades-old governance priorities of the southern states.
Officials in southern states told ST that underperforming regions could save more mothers’ lives, too – if they have the political will and persistently apply existing protocols.
