Blog post

The concept of providing quality care during labor and childbirth can have connotations. When it comes to the health care provider, quality care can include the structural aspects of care like optimum availability of materials, and sufficient skilled persons whereas for women who were at the receiving end of this care it had to do with patient-centered care, positive relationship and experience with the caregivers. The real challenge lies in achieving the right balance between both these perceptions.

But when it comes to pointing out what constituted poor quality of antenatal, intrapartum and postpartum care, both the caregivers and patients had a somewhat similar list. From unwelcoming reception on admission, non-consented care, physical and verbal abuse, shortage of stage of staff, poor labor room design to lack of adequate training. The first step towards improving is measuring the quality of care. The key to ensuring quality care is to incorporate the healthcare providers’ and women’s’ views when designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating maternal health programs. That said it is also important that the healthcare facility has an enabling environment with encouraging active promotion of the communication between healthcare providers and women.

The period around birth is critical for maternal and newborn survival and so is the quality of care provided during labor and childbirth and in the immediate postnatal period. Continuing support during labor and childbirth plays a role in shaping birth outcomes including type of birth, analgesia used, length of labor, neonatal Apgar scores and women’s feelings about their birth experience. It may be up to the care provider to ensure optimum care but these providers need appropriate training and supervision including an assessment of core competencies.

Making sure that high quality of care is delivered certainly requires a multi-disciplinary effort from all fronts. ARTIST for Her makes this possible by offering training programs that are the need of the hour to the frontline healthcare professionals, staff nurses, counsellors, health educators and clinical assistants on a whole range of competency based- activities spanning from lifestyle to emergency care. By making the best use of all digital mediums & platforms, and other innovative means they have been conducting practical, hands-on and cost-effective skills training through onsite teaching at Skill Gurukool to even the remotest of areas. The trainers at ARTIST ensure that the training is not just about the certificates but about the competency. The spectrum of training encompasses basic ObGyn skills to recent advances inclusive of endoscopy, ultrasound and infertility with a foundation of evidence-based protocols.

Under their online courses certified by FOGSI they enrolled and certified 7,800 OBGYNs into the certification course on Anemia management, about 9,000 OBGYNs for certification program on Management of Diabetes in Pregnancy, 8,200 OBGYNs for Gestational Hypothyroidism, over 6800 registered for PCOS Management, around 625 enrolled for Paramedics for Lifestyle Management and another 430 for fast-track course on Post-Partum IUCD. They have also initiated the Manyata Trainings for safe delivery across the country.

Cutting Edge, is their annual conclave of Obstetrics & Gynecologists and related healthcare professionals from all over India and the world from various organizations with the aim to interact, introspect, innovate, audit and discuss the practicalities of implementation of various practice guidelines, thereby translating into clinical practices across the country. When we take note of the number of maternal and natal lives that could be in jeopardy due to poor quality of care or lack of access to trained health personnel or inadequacy of proper training, then all this is definitely a step in the right direction.

For enquiries, send a message to www.ARTISTFORHer.com/contact

Visit www.ARTISTFORHer.com to know about the Advocacy, Research and Training programs that ARTIST is involved in.

You can visit the ARTIST youtube channel here - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPi38M0eMI9F97reMce3egQ/videos