As yet another World Breastfeeding Week commences, with hectic educational activity around the mother and her newborn, it would seem the best time to bring attention to what needs to be done in the field of maternal and child healthcare.
A recent perception poll called the 2021 Hologic Global Women’s Health Index, in its second year and in a tie up with Gallup, says the gap in index scores between women in high-income and low-income economies nearly doubled between 2020 and 2021. In 2021, 22 points separated women in high-income economies — whose score remained unchanged at 61 — and women in low-income economies, whose score dropped from 49 to 39.
In India, a total of 1,382 women were polled on the question: “Do you think most pregnant women in the city or area you live [in] receive high-quality healthcare during their pregnancies, or not?” in 2021. In 2020, the same question had been asked to 917 women in India. In the first year, 76.3% of Indian women in the poll had answered ‘yes’ (76.3%) and 15.7% answered ‘no’ (15.7%). In 2021, the perception seemed to have changed slightly, with only 67.1% women saying ‘yes’, and nearly 30% of the women surveyed saying they thought most pregnant women in their city or area did not receive high-quality care during pregnancy.
