Hanoi: pre-natal care lowers maternal mortality rate

Illustrative image (Photo: Save the Children)

Hanoi (VNA) – The Reproductive Health Care Centre of Hanoi
reported that 99.9 percent of pregnant women have received , thus
reducing the city’s maternity mortality rate to below the national level.

According
to the centre’s Director Nguyen Xuan Anh, 98 percent of new mothers and their newborn
babies also receive post-delivery care.

The
director reported that all hospitals and clinics across the city offer
reproductive health care services, such as pregnancy examination, gynaecology
check-ups and treatment and birth control methods.

All
commune-level health care stations provide health and nutrition consultation
along with treatment of common diseases among children. Many also offer child
birth delivery, gynaecology check-ups and test samples taking for early
detection of reproductive infections and cancer.

District-level
health care centres, the Hanoi Oncology Hospital, and the municipal chapter of
the Vietnam Women’s Union jointly implemented a programme on cervical
cancer screening among local women.

The
centre also provides services for adolescents and men while
conducting communication work across local schools to enhance the awareness of
productive health care among students.

Another
key task of the centre is to monitor the development of children under five with
the goal of reducing malnutrition, stunted growth and obesity. As a result, 98.1
percent children under two have their weight measured every quarter; 98.2
percent of malnourished children under five receive monthly checks, and 98
percent of children under five are given the check every year.

The
rate of stunted growth among children under five in Hanoi is now 14.2 percent,
and the rate of underweight children is 9 percent.

Nguyen
Xuan Anh said the city is facing numerous challenges in reproductive health
care for men, industrial zone workers and adolescents; as well as in tackling
both malnutrition and growing obesity among children.

In
order to address the situation, the centre will coordinate closer with relevant
agencies and localities to expand further reproductive health care and improve population
quality.

The
city aims to bring down the rate of child malnutrition in terms of
weight-for-age and height-for-age to 14 percent and 8.8 percent, respectively,
and the rate of child obesity to below 10 percent. -VNA