877 Infants, 61 Mothers Died In Meghalaya As Pregnant Women Refused Hospital Delivery Fearing COVID-19

Shillong: The Meghalaya government has recently informed the NHRC (National Human Rights Commission) about the cause of a high number of women and their newborn deaths during the covid pandemic.

The state government stated that at least 61 mothers and 877 infants died because of the only reasons that pregnant women refused to get admitted to hospitals for child delivery.

The women were not ready to get hospitalized during the pandemic because of the fear of getting contracted with the deadly COVID-19 infection.

The National Human Rights Commission has earlier filed a complaint about the tally of mother and infants fatalities in Meghalaya throughout the pandemic.

According to reports, after receiving the complaint, the government of Meghalaya has now submitted a report taking action over the matter.

Officials informed that a thorough investigation was initiated over the cause of maternal and newborns deaths and it then came to light that most of them died due to lack of medical treatment and attention that is much needed at that time.

Pregnant women refused to get admitted to hospitals and were also denied the COVID-19 test for the fear associated with it getting affected by the virus.

Officials claimed that it was compulsory to separate the non- COVID-19 patients and COVID-19 patients at the time when the death occurred and therefore the required covid testing was done so that the disease does not spread further mainly in the hospital wards.

The report by the Meghalaya government also added that to encourage pregnant women for getting admitted to hospitals during delivery, the ASHAs and ANMs were repeatedly visiting their homes and counseling despite the women abstaining from seeing a doctor.

The health team also followed the high-risk pregnant women and advised them to visit the hospital at least 2 weeks prior to their due dates.

The other reason for the huge number of maternal and infants deaths as stated by officials was underlying and often neglected socio-economic and gender dimensions in the state of Meghalaya.

The government also started a rescue operation for the huge tally of deaths and a health team was made for the identification and registration of all those pregnant women in the mobile app so that deaths can be prevented.

In addition, to reduce maternal deaths and provide early medical care, the districts were ordered to ensure about 100 percent of Ante Natal Care (ANC) registration.

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