ProMASS News Bureau: Feb 26, 2016:
The Union Health Ministry has decided to allow birth companions during delivery in public health facilities. An official release said, the decision is aimed at reducing the Maternal Mortality Ratio and Infant Mortality Rate. The release said, the presence of a female relative during labour is a low cost intervention that has proved to be beneficial to the women in labour.
The Ministry has proposed some pre-requisites for a birth companion. The birth companion has to be a female relative and preferably one who has undergone the process of labor. She should not suffer from any communicable diseases. She should wear clean clothes. She should be willing to stay with the pregnant woman throughout the process of labour.
She should not interfere in the work of hospital staff and the treatment procedures. She should not attend to other women in the labour room. In facilities where privacy protocols are followed in the labour room, the husband of the pregnant woman can be allowed as a birth companion.
