Evaluation Of Maternal Health Services Under National Health Mission

Abstract

Maternal health services under the National Health Mission (NHM) are designed to provide a continuum of care from early pregnancy registration to antenatal care, high-risk pregnancy identification, institutional delivery, free entitlements, postnatal care and counselling. Although India has made sustained progress in improving maternal health indicators, service gaps may persist in timely registration, completeness of antenatal investigations, iron-folic acid adherence, referral transport, cashless entitlements and postnatal follow-up. Evaluation of maternal health services is therefore important for programme managers, public health practitioners and pharmacy professionals who contribute to drug availability, counselling, supply chain management and quality assurance. A descriptive cross-sectional evaluative design was planned among 120 pregnant or recently delivered women attending selected public health facilities. Data were organised through a structured beneficiary questionnaire, facility observation checklist, maternal health record review checklist and service readiness assessment tool. Key domains included early ANC registration, MCP card availability, minimum four ANC visits, PMSMA attendance, high-risk pregnancy screening, haemoglobin testing, blood pressure monitoring, IFA and calcium distribution, tetanus-diphtheria protection, institutional delivery, JSY/JSSK benefits, referral transport, postnatal care, counselling and satisfaction. Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests and domain-wise percentage scoring were used for analysis. The thesis presents a complete analytical framework with model tables and figures for a planned sample of 120 beneficiaries. The model findings indicate that 35.0% of beneficiaries had good awareness of NHM maternal health services, 48.3% had moderate awareness and 16.7% had poor awareness. Early ANC registration was reported by 78.3%, at least four ANC visits by 70.0%, institutional delivery by 91.7%, and postnatal contact within 48 hours by 73.3%.