Pregnant women here prefer ‘home delivery’ as they trust self-claimed midwives more than a distant PHC

Pregnant women here prefer ‘home delivery’ as they trust self-claimed midwives more than a distant PHC. Konda Reddi tribal women depend on them as the nearest PHC is 12 km away and another about 40 km away, while the government hospital, where a gynaecologist is available, in Chintoor can be accessed only after traversing about 70 km through the Naxalite-hit forest cover on the Andhra-Odisha border.

Five infants, four of them female, share a unique history in Reddi Nagaram, an hamlet inhabited by the Konda Reddi tribe, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) in Andhra Pradesh.

All of them were born within one year in the mud-walled houses, thanks to the deliveries performed by the hamlet’s self-claimed midwives who had come to their “aid” following a health emergency.

“We all rush to the pregnant woman whenever she complains of labour pains and perform the delivery in her house. The ANM will be informed about the health condition of the baby and the mother later,” says Sadala Chinnalamma.

She is among the five women who have been performing ‘non-institutional deliveries’ for some years at Reddi Nagaram in the Chintoor Agency in Alluri Sitharama Raju (ASR) district.

The hamlet, with 23 households and 110 population, is located on the Andhra-Odisha border, and the entire 50-km zone surrounding it is declared a Naxalite-hit pocket. It is also adjacent to the Bastar region in Chhattisgarh.

“Almost 99% of the home deliveries performed in our hamlet in the recent years were successful without any major health complications,” Pallala Chandramma, Sadala Balamma, Sadala Chinnalamma and Pallala Neelamm, all of them self-claimed midwives, told The Hindu in one voice when this correspondent met them on July 27.

“The following day, the baby and the mother will be taken to the hospital for further treatment and vaccination,” they said.