News Issues

Data Reveals A Pattern Of Miscarriage Cases In Maharashtra

Nimisha Bansal

05 Jun 2018 07:11 IST

New Update

Between April 2017 and March this year, Maharashtra government recorded 60,495 cases of miscarriage. This was revealed in a data from Health Management Information System (HMIS). Additionally, public hospitals account for around 57.1 % of such cases in the state. Surprisingly, the state recorded 952 cases of miscarriage in April alone this year. The number is significant and raises concerns about the state of public health in the country in general.

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In Maharashtra, Mumbai recorded the highest number of cases. The city showed 11,763 cases of miscarriages, or spontaneous abortion cases. It is followed by Pune with 8,571 and Thane (5,528).

Countrywide findings

The data for the whole country reveals around 5.55 lakh cases of miscarriage recorded in the same time period. Additionally, 4.7 lakh of these cases were in government hospitals. Authorities, however, believe this gap between private and public sector to be a result of underreporting. The private sector often indulges in concealing cases which may result in the huge gap in numbers.

Maharashtra accounts for 11 per cent of the total cases, coming next to West Bengal that recorded 75,202 miscarriages.

Miscarriages are generally a result of a genetic abnormality in the foetus, unbalanced hormones, or uterine fibroids. Bleeding is usually the most common sign of miscarriage.

Rural areas suffer more

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The data for Maharashtra revealed that there are a greater number of cases in rural areas. This might be a result of a lack of proper health facilities and doctors, affecting proper treatment in these areas. As a result, these areas recorded a higher rate of miscarriages with 69.8 per cent (42,205) of total miscarriages in the state. 18,920 miscarriage cases were reported from urban regions.

“In rural areas, pregnant women are anaemic with poor nutrition support. They are at higher risk of spontaneous abortion,” said Dr Ashok Anand, head of gynaecology department in JJ Hospital to Indian Express. He added that lack of health facilities may be responsible for the inability of the system to prevent certain miscarriages.

“One kind of miscarriage is when foetus dies in the uterus. In another kind, the mouth of uterus opens up, causing foetus to be miscarried. In high-risk cases, we stitch the opening and advice rest to prevent miscarriage,” Anand added.