Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Feature Mother and child health

The global push for institutional childbirths—in unhygienic facilities

BMJ 2016; 352 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i1473 (Published 10 March 2016) Cite this as: BMJ 2016;352:i1473

Rapid Response:

Hygiene is of paramount importance for protecting health

The problem of unhygienic facility in hospitals should be considered seriously while formulating future health policies (1). It is shocking to know that a third of the world's deaths of newborns occur in India despite improved economy and education. Delivery of child birth should be facilitated and permitted in the house itself by sending doctors/ trained health workers to houses, provided that the houses have adequate water facility and hygiene. In houses where there is no proper water facility or hygiene, the child birth should be facilitated in the hospitals.

Government should mandatorily provide hospitals with the basic facilities such as hygienic hospital beds and instruments, clean toilets, 24 hours clean water, drinking water, soap, hand wash and sanitizers.

Also adequate staff well trained and exclusively responsible for maintaining the cleanliness of the labor room should be compulsorily recruited in hospitals. Hygiene is of paramount importance for protecting health and should not be neglected.

References
1. BMJ 2016;352:i1473

Competing interests: No competing interests

15 March 2016
Vagish Kumar L Shanbhag
Reader
Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Yenepoya Dental College and Hospital, Yenepoya Research Centre, Yenepoya University
University Road, Deralakatte, Mangalore-575018, Karnataka, India