Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health
Improving the maternal and child health and their survival are central to the achievement of national health goals under the National Health Mission (NHM).
SDG Goal 3 also includes the focus on reducing maternal, newborn and child mortality. In the past years, innovative strategies evolved under the national programme
to deliver evidence-based interventions to various population groups.
Following the Government of India’s “Call to Action (CAT) Summit” in February, 2013, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare launched Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn Child plus
Adolescent Health (RMNCH+A) to influence the key interventions for reducing maternal and child morbidity and mortality.
The RMNCH+A strategy is built upon the continuum of care concept and is holistic in design, encompassing all interventions aimed at reproductive, maternal, newborn, child,
and adolescent health under a broad umbrella, and focusing on the strategic lifecycle approach.
The RMNCH+A strategy promotes links between various interventions across thematic areas to enhance coverage throughout the lifecycle to improve child survival in India.
The “plus” within the strategy focuses on:
- Inclusion of adolescence as a distinct life stage within the overall strategy.
- Linking maternal and child health to reproductive health and other components like family planning, adolescent health, HIV, gender, and preconception and prenatal diagnostic techniques.
- Linking home and community-based services to facility-based services.
- Ensuring linkages, referrals, and counter-referrals between and among various levels of health care system to create a continuous care pathway, and to bring an additive /synergistic effect in terms of overall outcomes and impact.
Key Features of RMNCH+A Strategy
The RMNCH+A strategy approach include:
- Health systems strengthening (HSS) focusing on infrastructure, human resources, supply chain management, and referral transport measures.
- Prioritization of high-impact interventions for various lifecycle stages.
- Increasing effectiveness of investments by prioritizing geographical areas based on evidence.
- Integrated monitoring and accountability through good governance, use of available data sets, community involvement, and steps to address grievance.
- Broad-based collaboration and partnerships with ministries, departments, development partners, civil society, and other stakeholders.
The RMNCH+A strategy provides a strong platform for delivery of services across the entire continuum of care, ranging from community to various level of health care system.
A strategic Approach to Reporoductive, Maternal, NewBorn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCH+A) in India