Maternal and Child Health is the preventive, pro motive, curative and rehabilitative health care of mothers and children. The main components of maternal and child health care are Antenatal care, Postnatal care, Intranatal care and care of the under five children.
Antenatal care
i.e. shortly ANC is the care of woman during pregnancy. The main aim of ANC is to achieve at the end of a pregnancy a healthy mother and a healthy baby. Drug contraindicated during pregnancy is very harmful. Smoking effects low birth weight baby, Alcohol effects brain development, Thalidomide effects deformed limbs, Tetra cycline effects skeletal development, streptomycin effects 8th cranial nerve damage.
Postnatal care
Postnatal care means the care of the mother and new born after delivery. The objectives postnatal care are to prevent complications of postnatal periods like puperal sepsis, urinary tract infections, mastitis, to prevent care for the restoration of mother to optimum health, to provide family planning immunization services, to check the adequacy feeding, to provide neonatal tetanus and other infection clean hands.
Intranatal care
It is the care during the time of delivery. The main purpose of Intranatal care are as follow .They are delivery with minimum injury to the infant and mother, care of the baby at delivery- resuscitation, care of cord, care of eyes etc.
Nutritional status assessment of child i.e. growth indicates physical maturation, development indicates functions, Anthopometric measurement: height, weight, head circumference, chest circumference, growth chart, biochemical assessment, clinical assessment.
These are lots of thing that we have to care about maternal and child health.