Guwahati, March 8: Assam’s women have a good reason to celebrate the International Women’s Day, given the fact that a large percentage of the state’s women have much better access to healthcare facilities today than they had two years ago.

More and more women are opting for institutionalised deliveries since the last two years, thanks to a greater level of awareness and availability of the Mrityunjoy 108 emergency ambulance service.

In fact, 80 per cent of the state’s women can now opt for institutionalised delivery.

Earlier, pregnant women residing in remote places had to travel miles to gain excess to basic medical care and in most cases, opted to have their babies delivered by untrained village midwives.

As a result, there was an increased chance of the mother and the newborn contracting life-threatening infections. Many women often died because of excessive loss of blood following delivery.

However, a sea change has been noticed, with the state government setting up primary and community health centres in rural areas of the state. Now, a majority of the women do not think twice before opting for institutionalised delivery in the care of trained doctors and medical staff.

This has also contributed towards bringing down the maternal mortality rate and infant mortality rate considerably in the state.

According to available statistics, institutional deliveries have increased from 23.2 per cent in 2003-04 to 66.3 per cent in 2008-09. This in turn has helped in lowering the maternal mortality rate from 480 deaths for every one lakh live births in 2007-08 to 333 deaths in 2008-09.

The infant mortality rate has also decreased from 64 for every 1,000 live births in 2008-09 to just 46 now.

The Mrityunjoy 108 service has so far attended to 371,751 pregnancy-related cases, of which over 4,000 infants were delivered inside ambulances.

D. Prasad, an offical of GVK EMRI, the organisation that runs the emergency ambulance service, said, “Our ambulances are equipped with the necessary medical facilities as well as trained manpower to ensure a safe delivery.”

“We have noticed a positive change in the mindset of people. In fact, nearly 80 percent of women opt for institutional deliveries these days. Delivering a child in the care of trained doctors always ensures the well being of the mother and child. Also, complications arising at the time of delivery can be handled in a medical set-up well. Our ambulances are equipped with the necessary medical facilities as well as trained manpower to ensure a safe delivery,” said D Prasad, an official of the GVK EMRI Service.