JP Nadda to launch SUMAN Roadmap 2030 for maternal, newborn health

Health Minister JP Nadda will release the SUMAN Roadmap 2030, a strategic framework to reduce maternal and newborn mortality. It provides customised interventions for high-focus states, tracks high-risk pregnancies, and promotes community engagement.

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Jagat Prakash Nadda will release the 'SUMAN Roadmap 2030' on Monday, during the 16th Conference of the Central Council of Health and Family Welfare (CCHFW), release said.

The roadmap is a comprehensive, multi-dimensional strategic framework designed to strengthen maternal and newborn healthcare and accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets for reducing maternal and newborn mortality by 2030.

The SUMAN Roadmap 2030 has been developed in response to the need for renewed and targeted action to address the remaining challenges in maternal and newborn health. While India has recorded significant improvements in maternal health over the past decade, persistent gaps continue to impede further reductions in maternal and newborn mortality, particularly in high-focus States.

A Tailored, Life-Cycle Approach

According to the release, Roadmap moves beyond a uniform approach by providing customised, differentiated and evidence-based interventions tailored to the needs of States and districts. The Roadmap adopts a life-cycle approach by integrating interventions across the continuum of care, covering pre-pregnancy care, antenatal care, intrapartum care and postnatal care. It further promotes convergence with child health, adolescent health, family planning and nutrition under the RMNCHA+N framework to ensure integrated service delivery.

Structured Framework for High-Risk Pregnancies

A key feature of the Roadmap is a structured four-stage framework for identification, tracking and management of high-risk pregnancies, encompassing antenatal high-risk pregnancy with special focus on third-trimester high-risk pregnancy, intrapartum high-risk pregnancy and postnatal high-risk mothers.

The framework also incorporates contextualised interventions based on field-level learnings, including transportation challenges, access in tribal and hard-to-reach areas, quality emergency obstetric care, Jan Bhagidari through SUMAN Panchayats, and emerging challenges such as climate change.

Targeted Strategies for High-Focus States

The Roadmap introduces targeted and time-bound strategies across 130 districts in 13 high-focus States--Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal--while also outlining strategies for all States and Union Territories to sustain progress and achieve saturation of maternal and newborn health services.

For the identified high-focus States, the Roadmap proposes a comprehensive SUMAN Package for Pregnant Women to promote timely registration, complete antenatal care, quality clinical assessment and adequate post-partum institutional stay.

Community-Level Interventions and Support

Community-level interventions during the third trimester include bi-weekly home visits by ASHAs during the eighth and ninth months of pregnancy for screening of danger signs, nutrition counselling, birth preparedness and reinforcement of institutional delivery.

The Roadmap further proposes financial support for a designated caregiver to accompany mothers during the critical postnatal period, strengthening referral transport to ensure timely transportation during obstetric emergencies, particularly in hard-to-reach and underserved regions, and strengthening of infrastructure through mandatory establishment of Birth Waiting Homes (BWHs), Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Wings, Obstetric High Dependency Units (HDUs) and Intensive Care Units (ICUs) in difficult and underserved areas.

Nationwide Measures and Community Participation

For all States and Union Territories, the Roadmap envisages institutionalising pre-pregnancy folic acid supplementation for women planning conception, comprehensive nutrition interventions to address maternal anaemia and undernutrition, and strengthened tracking and management of high-risk mothers across antenatal, third-trimester, intrapartum and postnatal stages.

Community participation forms a key pillar of the strategy through initiatives such as SUMAN Panchayat, aimed at promoting zero maternal deaths, zero infant deaths, universal antenatal care, institutional deliveries and full immunization while strengthening local accountability. The Roadmap also introduces Mothers' Picnic as a community platform to enhance awareness, participation and adoption of positive maternal and newborn health practices. (ANI)

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