Maternal mortality down from 0.55 in 2019 to 0.44 in 2024: Report

The Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) in Delhi has marginally declined from 0.55 in 2019 to 0.44 in 2024. The report, ‘Women and Men in Delhi-2025’, issued by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics of the Delhi government, is based on secondary data.

Citing the ‘Annual Report on Registration of Births and Deaths in Delhi’, the report said MMR in Delhi has decreased from 0.55 in 2019 to 0.44 in 2024.

The report said, according to the Sample Registration System, women’s mean age at marriage in Delhi in 2022 was 24.6 years, an increase of 2.2 years from 2011. At the national level, the mean age stood at 22.7 years — an increase of 1.5 years since 2011.

The report cited National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data to highlight the improvement in accessibility of health services for women, stating that the percentage of mothers who received postnatal care from a healthcare professional within two days of delivery in Delhi has increased from 62.3 per cent as per NFHS-4 (2015-16), to 85.4 as reported in NFHS-5 (2019-21).

At the national level, it has risen from 62.4 per cent (NFHS-4) to 78 per cent in 2019-21 (NFHS-5). As per NFHS data, institutional births at the Delhi level has increased from 84.4 per cent in 2015-16 to 91.8 per cent in 2019-21.

Better ante and postnatal care and an increase in births attended by skilled medical personnel is expected to bring down maternal mortality, the report noted. The NFHS reports for 2015-16 and 2019-21 also shows a rising trend in Delhi of mothers who received antenatal check-up during the first trimester of pregnancy, increasing from 63 per cent (NFHS-4) to 76.4 per cent (NFHS-5).

The report also stressed on the risk of anaemia to pregnant women. Among pregnant women, iron deficiency-linked anaemia is associated with adverse reproductive outcomes such as preterm delivery, low-birthweight infants, and decreased iron reserves for the baby, leading to impaired development.

Failure to reduce anaemia may result in millions of women experiencing impaired health and quality of life, and may hamper the child’s development and learning, it said.

According to NFHS data, a significant decrease has been observed in Delhi in anaemia cases among women in the age group of 15-49 years, from 54.3 per cent (2015-16) to 49.9 per cent (2019-21), while at national level, it has risen from 53.1 per cent in 2015-16 to 57 per cent in 2019-21.