UGC Post Doctoral Fellow, Deptt. of Sociology, University of Lucknow. E-mail: riddhi_sri@yahoo.co.in
Maternal health is an important aspect of public health and development discourse. It encompasses in its domain all efforts made to safeguard the health of expectant mothers and that of unborn/new born as both are inherently related to one another. Ensuring good maternal health has always remained the central concern of governments and civil society organisations (CSOs) globally because it has a direct impact on the important indicators of public health and human development like maternal and neonatal morbidity, maternal mortality ratio (MMR), infant mortality ratio (IMR), infant and child health etc. United Nations (UN) in its Millennium Summit held in the year 2000 set 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), one of which was improvement of maternal health. This aim was furthered in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set in the year 2015. In it the target MMR was set at 70 per 100000 live births and IMR at 12 per 1000 live births, to be achieved by year 2030 which is still a far-fetched dream in India, even though certain level improvement has been achieved.
Antenatal care, maternal mortality, socio-cultural factors
