“it was a snowy afternoon, when no one ventures out, suddenly we saw two persons walking towards us and a heavily pregnant Pooja reached our health center” Says labour room nurse Meenakshi, of district of Chamba, Himachal Pradesh. The nurses immediately got into action but discovered that Meenakshi was a complicated case of breech presentation that needed to be transferred to the district hospital immediately. The inclement weather made this impossible, Pooja has already walked 6.5 miles to reach them, they had to do something. The team got together and put in all their learning and skill to ensure a safe delivery and after 2 hours a baby girl was born.
Alas the joy was short-lived, the baby was absolutely still and quiet, not even breathing. Meenakshi, took immediate steps to resuscitate the newborn baby, even as another nurse attended to the mother. In a matter of seconds the baby started crying and everyone was relaxed.
Meenakshi further shares, “Today we all gathered and recollected all steps and procedures learnt at the Vriddhi’s training. This helped us to stay calm and act confidently. All of us in the labour room rejoiced when our efforts helped to save both the mother and her baby.” The nurses have become the saviours, often they face tough situations when no outside help is available, but they are empowered to act and save lives because time is of the essence.
Vriddhi through its care around birth approach targets mothers and newborn at the critical time of birth. The approach not only aims at enhancing skills of health workers but also empowers them and builds their confidence to apply their learning to real life situations and make a difference. Meenakshi is amongst the over 1400 Labor room staff members trained by Vriddhi project across six focus states on the care around birth approach.
Vriddhi Scaling up RMNCHA Interventions is a USAID supported project mandated to reduce preventable maternal and child deaths.
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