By Henry Foy
NEW DELHI, Sept 1 (Reuters) - India has halved the number of women who die during childbirth, but experts warned on Wednesday a lack of facilities is likely to stop the country from meeting global goals for improving maternal health before 2015.
Countries agreed to decrease maternal mortality rates by 75 percent in 1990 as part of the UN's Millenium Development Goals -- a set of targets aimed at improving social indicators in developing countries.
In India, where a chronic lack of health care infrastructure and awareness mean millions of women in villages give birth at homes with little medical help, maternal mortality rate (MMR) has halved to 254 per 100,000 births since 1990.
It needs to fall below 140 to meet the 2015 target.
But as institutional births, or deliveries at medical facilities, increase, service shortfalls are being exposed, with both private and public sector facilities struggling to meet the rising demand.
"The demand has increased for institutional births, and now we must work to ensure that this increased demand is met with an adequate supply of infrastructure," says Beena Varghese, Head of Research Development, Public Health Foundation of India.
Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), a government scheme launched in 2005 that provides funds for women who give birth in a state hospital or accredited private clinic, has seen the number of births taking place outside the home rise to 75 percent nationwide.
Aditi Iyer, Research Consultant at the Indian Institute of Management, believes the services crunch is already biting.
"The rate of increase in institutional births is not actually commensurate with the decrease in maternal mortality," said she.
Her research in south India shows significant amounts of preventable deaths among women due to inadequate practitioners.
"Large numbers of doctors had no training. There is a complete mismatch between training needs, and the training that is available," Iyer said.
Prem Kumar Mony of the Bangalore-based St. John's Research Institute says the state must fill the gap: "If people move from home deliveries it puts a huge strain on the private sector. The public sector needs to improve to ensure it is good enough to cope." (Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee and Sanjeev Miglani)
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