Addressing the pressing concerns in maternity services: An in-depth analysis of current challenges

Decreased Length of Hospital Stay

After giving birth, our grandparents spent two weeks in “confinement.” The typical postpartum hospital stay had decreased to one week by the time our mothers gave birth to their children.
Today’s new mother is up and out of the hospital or hospital in two to three days as ambulatory care grows more and more prevalent in health care.
Early discharge presents a challenge to the nurse because she must communicate knowledge, support learning, and confirm the mother’s role in hours rather than days.
Early discharge frequently occurs before significant patient education; therefore, nurses must learn to adjust their teaching methods to the particular requirements of each patient (Styles, 1990).

The number of pregnant women who disregard their health has increased as a result of many socioeconomic issues and a lack of understanding about prenatal care.
Anaemia, hypertension, chronic illnesses, and STDs are common. Numerous women have early labour and give birth to at-risk low-birth-weight kids.

In India, trained dais (birth attendants) who lack a scientific education perform about 30% of all births.
The traditional dais (untrained birth attendants) are still used in the majority of Indian villages to assist with delivery.
This leads to poor reporting of morbidity, failure to identify prenatal issues in time for effective care, and a lack of resources to handle complications during birthing.

The numerous changes in maternal-newborn nursing during the past few years have been influenced by social, economic, political, and technological considerations.
With less technological involvement, more humanism, and a reaffirmation of the natural birth process, childbirth is increasingly viewed as a familial affair.
Additionally, encouraging as much mother-infant interaction as possible has been made possible by the realisation of the significance of mother-baby bonding in the first hours and days of the newborn’s life (Cohen, 1991).

Based on the idea that health has physical, social, economic, and psychological aspects.
The family-centred approach makes the underlying assumption that the family is the fundamental social unit and should be regarded as a whole while taking into account each individual member.
In order to protect the physical safety of the reproductive unit—the mother, father, and infant—while fostering family unity, family-centred care places a strong focus on the delivery of professional health care.
All age groups are attended to, educated, and counselled by the nurse. Integration and bonding are given top importance, and plenty of pre-counselling is provided.
The postpartum and nursery staff are united to form a mother-baby unit in family-centred care.

Single-room maternity care, also known as LDRP (labour, delivery, recovery, and postpartum care), was developed to replace the conventional maternity facility.
In it, the mother gives birth, recovers, and gives birth all in the same room and bed, and the infant usually stays with the mother the entire time.
The physical layout of the LDRP is often circular, with single birthing rooms circling a central space that houses all the tools required for normal or emergency care.
A main care nurse is assigned to the family from the mother’s admission until her discharge.
The LDRP system offers the benefit of offering complete medical care in a single location, in a setting that feels more like home, while keeping all the benefits of hospitalisation.

Couplet care, often referred to as dyad care, is a method in which a single nurse takes care of both the postpartum mother and her infant.
It promotes family unity while concentrating on and adapting to the physical and psychosocial needs of the mother, the family, and the newborn while offering a secure atmosphere in which nurses are accessible for consultation, support, and individual education.
Nurses analyse the family’s adaption and attachment while assisting both parents in taking on parental responsibilities for their infant.
This method supports the postpartum taking-in and taking-hold periods while facilitating parental infant connection, neonatal transition, nursing, and involution.