Way to healthy delivery

Dais have been an important part of the process of childbirth. However, the trend of institutional deliveries has sidelined them. These traditional midwives can be trained for a role in the national rural health scheme to lower the rate of maternal mortality, writes Usha Rai
There are over 10 lakh dais or traditional birth attendants serving rural and urban communities in the country and for centuries they have been delivering babies in return for a coconut, a sari or sums as small as Rs 50 or 100. According to the National Family Health Survey (2005-2006), an overwhelming proportion of births, especially in the high focus states of the National Rural	TRUSTED HANDS: Shanti Devi, a trained dai, examines a woman at a delivery hut in Byana village, 20 km from  Karnal, in Haryana
Health Mission (NRHM), still take place in homes.

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