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Maternal Health Situation in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh: A Comparative Analysis of State Fact Sheets of National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-3 and 4.

INTRODUCTION
Maternal health constitutes the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. Bihar and Madhya Pradesh (MP) constitute the Empowered Action Group (EAG) states under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and are consistently having poor maternal health indicators.


AIM
The main objective of this study was to assess the maternal health situation of Bihar and MP based on National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) and 4 fact sheets.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study adopted a narrative description in which the NFHS fact sheets (NFHS-3 & 4) of both these states were obtained from appropriate sources and compared for various maternal health indicators.


RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Albeit progress has been observed from NFHS-3 to NFHS-4 however, the progress is very dismal compared with the progress of other similar Indian states. Relatively MP has shown better progress compared to Bihar. Poor performance is being observed in all the three levels of maternal health; pregnancy {Ante-Natal Care (ANC), Tetanus toxoid (TT) and Iron and Folic Acid (IFA)}, child birth (Institutional delivery by Skilled Birth Attendant (SBA), Caesarean Section (CS) and post partum care (hospital stay and Janani Suraksha Yojna (JSY). The poor performance of both these states in all these indicators requires multipronged approach strong political will, health system strengthening, community mobilization and awareness.


CONCLUSION
Given the status of maternal health in India and more especially in states BIMARU (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh) and EAG states (Empowered action group), improvement in the performance of maternal health related activities is highly necessary.