Ayush on the efficacy of ayurvedic drugs in Pregnant Women
An apex body for Ayurvedic research studies under the Ministry of Ayush is all set now to undertake a study to assess the efficacy of Ayurvedic drugs in pregnant women for the management of anemia and other complications.
The study is being conducted by the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) will cover about 9000 pregnant women.
As part of this new study pregnant women will be given ayurvedic medicines made of herbs, put on a specific diet & made to follow a particular lifestyle as per requirement to prevent various complications during pregnancy like edema, constipation, nausea, backache and control anemia and attain normal birth weight of baby, Dr. N Srikanth, Deputy Director-General in the CCRAS said.
The aim of the study is also to help in the augmentation of milk after delivery, he said.
The 2-year-long study will be conducted at 30 primary health care centers of the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra.
The normal birth weight of a newborn range between 2.7 & 3.2 kgs. In order to ensure that the baby attains this normal birth weight, the mothers are given 6 different types of Ayurvedic
medicines. The expected outcomes of this new study are reducing complications in pregnant women & their babies, Srikanth said.The participants of the study will be divided into 2 groups.
One comprising 4,500 pregnant women will receive conventional ante-natal care under the existing national schemes of the government while the second group comprising of the same number of women will be given Ayurvedic medicines, diet and lifestyle advocacy along with conventional antenatal care regimen.
The women included in the study belong to the age group of 18 to 40 years.
A senior Ayush ministry official said the project staff including Ayurveda doctors and senior research fellows, pharmacists have already been deployed at primary health centers for the study purpose.
They are planning to provide health education to these women on hygiene and pregnancy care. This study will go on for 2 years, he said.
The current study has been based on a pilot study conducted on 2,465 pregnant women in Himachal Pradesh by the CCRAS in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) & the state government in 2000-2005.
The outcomes of the previous study were encouraging. There was a normal birth with normal weight of babies, there was a significant increase in hemoglobin levels in mothers and deliveries were normal ones with a lesser number of complications.
“To introduce these Ayurvedic interventions and medicines in the National health care delivery, studies have been conducted on a larger population for creating tangible evidence,” Srikanth said.
The National Population Policy 2000 & National Health Policy 2002 (health ministry have emphasized integration and mainstreaming of the Indian system of medicine focussing on reproductive and child health.
The National Health Policy 2017 emphasizes on mainstreaming of AYUSH systems through integration and co-location. Further, this policy also aims to reduce maternal mortality ratio (MMR) to 100 by 2020 and infant mortality rate (IMR) to 28 by 2019.
To fulfill these goals of National Health Policy, the CCRAS has undertaken this study and it is being executed through CCRAS Institute at Nagpur — Regional Ayurveda Research Institute for Mother & Child Health (RARIMCH). The aim of this project is to study the feasibility of introducing Ayurvedic interventions in Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) through integrative health care services, Srikanth added.
