Effect of COVID-19 pandemic on maternal and child health care in a medical teaching hospital, Bengaluru, India

Abstract

Background: Maternal and child health (MCH) care is a fundamental service of the public health delivery system of a nation, especially in low and middle-income countries like India. As the Covid-19 pandemic continued throughout the world, the health services such as maternal and child health (MCH) remained in inertia. Stringent lockdown measures and fear of contracting Covid-19 infection made accessing these services extremely hard. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care maternity hospital in Bengaluru from July to September 2021 among the post-natal mothers using a semi-structured questionnaire about the utilization of MCH services. Results: A total of 316 mothers were interviewed. Among them, 72.8% mothers had completed 4 or more antenatal visits. Among high-risk pregnancies, only 66.3% had completed adequate antenatal visits. 63% of infants had low birth weight and 83.4% of children were immunized up to date. Conclusions: This study revealed that, more than 1/4th of mothers had not completed 4 or more antenatal visits and about 1/3rd of the high-risk mothers had not completed adequate antenatal visits. More than 2/3rd of infants had low birth weight. This shows that there was a marked reduction in the utilization of MCH services during the Covid-19 pandemic.