Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan

Why is in news? Progress under “Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan” (PMSMA)

The Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan has been launched by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW), aims to provide assured, comprehensive and quality antenatal care, free of cost, universally to all pregnant women on the 9th of every month.

PMSMA guarantees a minimum package of antenatal care services to women in their 2nd / 3rd trimesters of pregnancy at designated government health facilities

Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan envisages to improve the quality and coverage of Antenatal Care (ANC) including diagnostics and counselling services as part of the Reproductive Maternal Neonatal Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCH+A) Strategy.

Objectives of the program:

Ensure at least one antenatal checkup for all pregnant women in their second or third trimester by a physician/specialist

Improve the quality of care during ante-natal visits.

Identification and line-listing of high risk pregnancies based on obstetric/ medical history and existing clinical conditions.

Appropriate birth planning and complication readiness for each pregnant woman especially those identified with any risk factor or comorbid condition.

Special emphasis on early diagnosis, adequate and appropriate management of women with malnutrition.

Special focus on adolescent and early pregnancies as these pregnancies need extra and specialized care

Key features:

A minimum package of antenatal care services (including investigations and drugs) would be provided to the beneficiaries on the 9th day of every month at identified public health facilities (PHCs/ CHCs, DHs/ urban health facilities etc) in both urban and rural areas in addition to the routine ANC at the health facility/ outreach.

Pregnant women would be given Mother and Child Protection Cards and safe motherhood booklets.

One of the critical components of the Abhiyan is identification and follow up of high risk pregnancies. A sticker indicating the condition and risk factor of the pregnant women would be added onto MCP card for each visit: Green Sticker- for women with no risk factor detected, Red Sticker – for women with high risk pregnancy.

A National Portal for PMSMA and a Mobile application have been developed to facilitate the engagement of private/ voluntary sector.

‘IPledgeFor9’ Achievers Awards have been devised to celebrate individual and team achievements and acknowledge voluntary contributions for PMSMA in states and districts across India.

As per the report of National Family Health Survey (NFHS), the percentage of mothers who had at least 4 antenatal care visits has increased from 51.2 % in NFHS-4 (2015-16) to 58.1% in NFHS-5 (2019-21) and the percentage of pregnant women with institutional births in public facility has increased from 52.1 % in NFHS-4 (2015-16) to 61.9% in NFHS-5 (2019-21)