Project e-mamta to track health of expectant mums

AHMEDABAD: The ambitious e-mamta project will now keep track of mother and child health through SMS. The project launched under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) is aimed at checking maternal and infant mortality rates.

The project aims at taking adequate medical services to pregnant women and advising them on aspects of nutrition during the pregnancy. In Ahmedabad, nearly 79,284 pregnant women are in the process registering themselves with the programme.

Another interesting aspect of the e-mamta project is that it keeps track of the last menstrual cycle of a woman to check her medical condition since the date of conception. Apart from this, the programme also keeps track of number of children alive and their dates of birth. The state health department has assigned an agency, 'Saunak Films' to run a call centre and maintain the confidential data of the registered mothers and infants.

"We will be registering the mobile phone numbers of pregnant mothers and in some cases, the numbers of their family members, relatives or neighbours. The rising maternal and infant mortality rate is because critical care does not reach them in time. With the new SMS and mobile phone system introduced, we plan to keep track of pregnant mothers and infant health," said a senior AMC official.

However, the process of registration under the e-mamta is rather slow in Ahmedabad city. For instance, if there are 79,284 mothers who have been identified for the project, there is a backlog of details of 27,163 pregnant women. In case of mother and child, there are a total of 10,791 cases out of which 950 mother-child details are yet to be registered in the programme in the city.

As reported in: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-07-25/ahmedabad/29812366_1_pregnant-women-infant-mortality-mamta