To prevent death of pregnant women and newborn babies in the tribal areas of Visakhapatnam district, the district administration has set up a waiting home for pregnant women at Munchingputtu in the district on Tuesday.
The waiting home, which was constructed at a cost of about ₹30 lakh with the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) funds near the Community Health Centre (CHC), was inaugurated by Araku MLA Chetti Phalguna, Zilla Parishad Chairperson J. Subhadra and Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) Project Officer R. Gopala Krishna.
Pregnant women from interior tribal hamlets, which do not have proper road facilities, especially those who are being shifted by ‘doli’ can be brought and admitted to the waiting home two weeks before the expected date of delivery. The pregnant women would be provided food, water, medication and other facilities to ensure safe delivery. This would avoid unfortunate incidents, the officials said.
Mr. Gopala Krishna said that such centres would be inaugurated at Araku and Dumbriguda in January. He also promised to construct a birth waiting home, houses for medical staff and a mobile tower at Rudakota village of Pedabayulu mandal.
Mr. Phalguna said the birth waiting home at Munchingput was the first in the State. Giving top priority to medical and health services, the State government has been appointing adequate number of specialist doctors in the Agency hospitals, he said.
Additional DMHO K. Leela Prasad was present.
