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Delhi Births: Home vs. Hospital Dilemma Persists
22 Feb
Summary
- 2.4% of Delhi births in 2024 still assisted by relatives/untrained persons.
- Institutional deliveries in Delhi increased to 96.1% in 2024.
- Untrained midwife assistance for births dropped to 0.9% in 2024.
In Delhi, the trend towards hospital-based childbirth has seen remarkable progress, with institutional deliveries rising from 73.7% in 2005 to 96.1% by 2024. This substantial increase of over 22 percentage points reflects expanded maternal health infrastructure and incentive schemes.
However, a small but persistent percentage of births, 2.4% in 2024, continue to be assisted by relatives or untrained persons. This indicates that informal delivery practices have not been entirely eliminated, with factors like distance to hospitals and fear of C-sections contributing to home births.
Simultaneously, the assistance by untrained midwives has drastically declined from 19.2% in 2005 to just 0.9% in 2024. This significant shift underscores a move towards medically supervised care within formal health facilities.
Officials attribute the remaining gap to socio-economic disparities, migration, limited awareness, and cultural preferences. Ensuring universal institutional delivery will require targeted interventions for marginalized communities to address these complex challenges.
