Home Visits—

Pregnancy Counseling and Prenatal Care

As an integral component of the Maternal and Young Child Health Initiative, Calcutta Kids provides bi-monthly home visits to each of the pregnant women in the slum. Community Health Workers talk with and counsel these pregnant women individually about important subjects relating to a healthy pregnancy, including getting more rest than usual, eating more than usual, not lifting heavy items, watching for pregnancy danger signs, and - particularly important for first-time pregnancies - explaining the major and largely unspoken of changes which go on in the body. Throughout a woman’s pregnancy, she is also counseled on optimal infant care practices:


breastfeeding, proper use of oral rehydration therapy, immunization scheduling; and she’s also advised to put aside a small amount of money each week for her delivery.


While these home visits are important in monitoring a pregnant woman’s health during pregnancy and identifying high risk pregnancies, they also serve as a confidential means for women to talk with a caring CHW about personal problems they are facing—sometimes having to do with their pregnancy and sometimes having to do with something completely unrelated. This gives them an opportunity to ask questions they may be embarrassed to ask at the community meetings (hyperlink). Perhaps most importantly, these visits provide the assurance to a pregnant woman that someone is watching out for them and someone is genuinely concerned about their health and the health of the developing life within them. These home visits have transformed our CHW’s from simply being employees of Calcutta Kids, to well-respected members of the community – wisdom figures to whom people of the slum turn to in times of need.


Along with these home visits, a minimum of three prenatal care check-ups are provided to pregnant women by a doctor, as well as Tetanus toxoid inoculation, and provisions of iron folate tablets to prevent anemia during pregnancy. In addition to counseling, pregnancy weight gain monitoring, and preventative health services, the women served by Calcutta Kids receive a 75% subsidized facility-based delivery in a private medical clinic contracted by Calcutta Kids for this very purpose, thereby increasing the likelihood that any complications during delivery will be safely resolved and not risk the life of the mother.

Medical Case Management

Another type of home visit is the medical case management—a follow up visit with women and children who have received medical treatment at the weekly health camp. These home visits are carried out within 3 days of their checkup. In each case, the doctor and the CHW talks with the family about the illness which occurred, the recovery process, the importance of finishing the medicine prescribed even if the patient is feeling better, and ways in which to avoid such illness in the future. If the patient is not recovering, follow-up treatment is carried out.