What is Maternal Health Care?

Maternal health refers to the health of a woman during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period during this time, maternal Health Care is required to be given to the women which involve antenatal care (ANC), postnatal care (PNC), and delivery services. Maternal Health Care is extremely important for pregnant women as its main aim is to improve the well-being of the mother, the infants, and children. The health and wellbeing of mother and child also determine the health of the next generation and predict the future Public Health challenges for the community and Healthcare system. To main objectives of maternal Health Care address a wide range of medical conditions that can impact the health and wellness of women, children, and families.

Importance of Maternal Health 

Pregnancy can offer a lot of complications and health issues for both the women and the child and in order to prevent any further health problems, maternal Health Care needs to be provided. Some of the health risks which can be prevented with proper maternal Health Care include diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease, genetic conditions, unhealthy weight, inadequate nutrition, sexually transmitted diseases, tobacco, alcohol and substance use, intimate partner violence, and depression. The risk of these health issues of maternal and infant mortality can be significantly reduced by enhancing their access to quality preconception, prenatal, and interconnection care. Apart from that, other than providing healthy birth outcomes, efficient maternal health care is also necessary for early identification of disabilities in the child and provide treatment for developmental delays and other conditions which can prevent death.

Components of Maternal Health

There are numerous elements of maternal health which are considered and taken care of during maternal Health Care which includes:

• Family planning and reproductive health service

• Health system strengthening

• Health communication

• Maternal, new-born and child health services

• Health commodity and supplies 

All of these components help in delivering safe motherhood and a healthy child apart from providing necessary support and instructions to the family for a better and effective family planning in the future.

How to Improve Maternal Health?

In order to improve the maternal health of both child and mother, it is necessary to provide them with easy and fast access to quality and safe maternal health services and offer the mother the necessary education to take care of her child during pregnancy and after childbirth. Apart from that, getting men involved in the process is also required to improve maternal health as they can provide the required support related to healthcare and finances.

However, the most important thing to improve maternal health is to make maternal health nurse 24 hours line available to the mother and family members so that they can easily call for help in case of emergency. It is highly necessary because the period of childbirth is one of the most complicated and critical times where the mother and child require extensive care, which can be provided by a professional maternal health nurse.