How Odisha’s Kailas Baliarsingh Made Expectant Mothers Shed ‘Misbelief’ On Institutional Delivery

He motivates. He mobilises. He woos. He wins. Wowed by the wonder of this wordsmith, females with baby bumps now shake off moth-eaten taboos and worn-out traditions to go in for institutional delivery. This tale tells about 15 villages under Sirkabarga panchayata in Daringbadi block of Odisha’s Kandhamal, where ‘unsafe’ home delivery yields place to ‘safe’ institutional delivery under the stewardship of volunteer Kailash Baliarsingh of Badangia village.

However, this transition from home delivery to institutional delivery has had its rugged passage that Baliarsingh had to trudge along to mount the podium finally. Hitherto used to the treatment under dai-s (rural midwives) and penned down in their home, expectant mothers in villages at first shuddered, when coaxed to deliver their babies at a health centre. They felt it too dicey and even deadly to pop pills prescribed by physicians, to go in for immunization and to lay down under a male doctor’s eagle eyes.

Then Baliarsingh, who plunged into social service some years ago when outbreak of cholera unleashed wrath in his areas, arrived on the scene. Now he made a pitch for institutional delivery as a volunteer under UNICEF’s Sampurna Barta Project (SBP).

Initially rebuffed and rejected by villagers, he fumbled, stumbled and tumbled every time. But each time he gathered himself and galloped ahead with renewed vigour and velocity. He moved from door to door, exhorted people and coordinated with health workers to make institutional delivery a catch phrase in the areas. Ultimately his expedition turned up trumps. Expectant mothers, prompted by Baliarsingh’s pep talk, now make a beeline for institutional delivery.

“About 12 mothers and five babies died annually in villages under Sonepur health sub-centre because of ‘unsafe’ home delivery. Now over 50 institutional deliveries take place annually with no case of mortality reported” claims Baliarsingh. “Now proper records of expectant mothers along with the details of their immunization and tentative delivery dates, time for their medicine intake and a host of other things are maintained meticulously. But this system had never been the routine before.”

Earlier, a few drops of castrol oil were poured on the point some inches above the navel of the expectant mother during labour pain. If the oil trickled down to the navel and then straight down to the female genital, delivery was presumed to be imminent. If it detoured away from the navel, delivery was predicted to be late.

“This sometimes proved hazardous,” says Katherina, the spouse of Baliarsingh. Katherina is one of eight ASHA workers in 15 villages. She keeps pace with her husband to champion institutional delivery. “Earlier, a new-born baby was bathed in cold water and then massaged with turmeric-powder-mixed-oil. As a result, it died of pneumonia or respiratory infection,” she says.

“After deaths of my bada jaa (sister-in-law, the wife of husband’s elder brother) and my first baby during home delivery, I went for institutional delivery at the behest of Baliarsingh. Now I am a proud mother of three healthy children,” Menaka Baliarsingh, a resident of Badangia.

Earlier, Arogya-Plus Project with mobile health unit took (still it does the same) expectant mothers to nearby government’s Maa Gruha 10 days before the tentative delivery dates. Then she was shifted to health centres for delivery.

“Arogya-Plus Project of Zilla Swasthya Samiti under health administration gained momentum after the launch of SBP in the last part of 2018,” explains SBP project coordinator Kailash Chandra Behura in Daringbadi block.

“Baliarsingh joined us only five months ago. But he has changed the scenario in Sirkabarga panchayata in a short span of time.”