The intensification of family planning services for the stabilization of the population, the Centre has proposed to significantly improve the system of compensation for sterilization in 20 high focus States. The compensation will now be tied with the Janani Suraksha Yojana where women are given cash incentive to deliver in a health care facility to help reduce maternal and infant mortality.

The new scheme provides for compensation for tubal ligation improving Rs 1000 to Rs 2000 (for women only up to three children) and Rs 1500 to Rs 2500 for a vasectomy (for men only up to three children ) for services provided in public schools, while compensation for sterilization performed in the center of the private organization and NGOs accredited to the high focus states for both tubal ligation and vasectomy will be increased from Rs 1500 to Rs 2500.

That tells her compelling story.  She was also the topic of my previous blog almost a year ago.

The AHRQ’s report was enlightening. Of the 4.2 million deliveries that occurred in 2008, 94.1 percent has a complication. Some of those complications include urinary tract infections, anemia and vomiting. The treatment of these conditions is usually straightforward and uncomplicated. However, hypertension and the dreaded pre-eclampsia is a different matter. These conditions are unforgiving if misdiagnosed or not properly treated.

The hospital stay of women with complications who didn’t deliver was an average of 2.9 days compared to 1.9 days for women who didn’t have complications or a delivery. It is also expensive with a price tag of $17.4 billion dollars and represents 5 percent of all U.S. hospital costs . The average age of women who were admitted for complications was 27. Older women between the ages of 35 to 44 represented 15% of hospital admissions with pregnancy complications....

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Summary of a story from the Guardian , 17 March 2011

Men are a rare sight in the maternity ward of the Maternal and Child Health Training Institute in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.

Although there is no law barring men from the delivery room, fathers are normally not present during the birth of their own child – an attitude that needs to change, say the country’s first midwives, who are due to graduate next month.

“Men need to be involved in the labour process if we are to reduce maternal mortality,” says Mala Reberio, one of the 20 midwives being trained to international standards in Bangladesh.

The country is still heavily reliant on community skilled birth attendants who lack the skill and the authority to perform more complicated deliveries. Currently, one in 500 women in Bangladesh dies during childbirth.

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