Pregnancy, Delivery, Family Spacing Kit
for pregnant women, their husbands and mothers-in-law
Also see Shankar kit Champa kit
For over 30 years, the family welfare programme in India has popularised the small family norm. To assist couples in planning small families, the programme has popularised various methods of contraception. People did not respond enthusiastically to this mainly because they were not sure if the children born to them would be healthy.
To address this problem initiatives were launched to reduced child mortality. Large-scale Immunisation Programmes were carried out. Oral Rehydration programmes were carried out to reduce diarrhea related mortality in children, Child Survival and Safe Motherhood programmes were carried out to improve the health of mothers and children.
However in spite of some success from all these programmes, the need was felt to introduce a more comprehensive reproductive and child health programme that would unify many of these areas to improve the over all health of women and children.
This communication package was created to fulfil the specific objectives of reducing low birth weight babies and to ensure normal pre and post natal care for women . The package aimed to help health workers reach out to pregnant women, their husbands and mothers in law. The family spacing module promotes contraceptive methods among eligible couples.
The kit is based on the story of a young couple 23-year-old Champa and 24-year-old Shankar. The narrative is presented through flipcharts, and key issues discussed in the flipcharts are highlighted through easy-to-use activities and visual aids.
The kit comprises three modules; each is self-sufficient and can be used singly, or in sequence with the other modules.The sequence of issues covered are Pregnancy, Delivery and Family Spacing.
Though the kit has been developed for rural areas in Bengal, it can be adapted for other states as well. It is available in Bengali. [June 2000]