Abstract :
Background: Majority of maternal deaths occur during labor, delivery and within 24
hours post-partum. Care-seeking is delayed because of the delay in Identifying the
complication, deciding to seek care, identifying and reaching a health facility, and
receiving adequate and appropriate treatment at the health facility. Transport to
health facility plays a crucial role in birth preparedness and complication readiness.
Methods: Review of literature was done with the help of search engines like Pub
Med and Google Scholar which were searched for relevant articles published after
2008.
Results: It was found that few people have knowledge regarding transport services
available for delivery through government. So, delay in reaching health facility
during labor or during complications due to pregnancy occurs. It also plays a major
role for maternal morbidity and mortality.
Conclusions: Despite facility available at health centre for transportation of pregnant
women, people are not aware of these facts. Repeated and intensive IEC campaigns
need to be organized at the community level to increase awareness regarding this.
At Sub centre and PHC level locally available vehicles should be identified and can be
hired on contractual level to fill the gap and to reduce the delay in reaching the
health facility in case of delivery or in case of emergencies arising due to pregnancy.
Keyword :
Birth preparedness, Complication readiness, Pregnancy, Transport facility.