Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited today held a conference on Critical Care for women, highlighting the need for awareness on complications that arise during pregnancy and child birth. Despite medical and scientific advancements, there still concerns of maternal deaths that arise due to complications in sugar levels, blood pressure and other problems.

According to reports, over the years, Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) has been brought down from 48 deaths per 1000 live births in 1998-99 to 21 births per 1,000 live births in 2012, highlighting that Tamil Nadu has been making progress in reducing infant mortality and improving child health. Maternal mortality rate, with additional skilling and learning, will also reduce in the coming years.

Dr N Ramakrishnan, Director, Critical Care Services at Apollo Hospitals says, “Post-partum hemorrhage, sepsis and eclampsia are some of the commonly identified causes of maternal mortality. The gap lies in not just identifying the complications that arise during pregnancies but also supplementing care givers with the necessary education and skills to treat those complication.”

“Primary level care givers must be educated on early recognition and treatment while tertiary care providers must join hands and collaborate to provide timely, holistic healthcare services during emergencies. This conference is primarily aimed at educating doctors and physicians on the importance of early referrals, recognitions and providing the technical know-how of dealing with pregnancy related complications.” he added.