As Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla walks through the narrow alleys of a slum in Kota, his parliamentary constituency, to enquire about the health of young mothers and their newborns, his stern facial expression-usually on display while he is chairing the House proceedings-gives way to a benevolent smile. Always up for promoting a public cause, from mobile kitchens to free clothes for the poor, Birla found a new mission when Kota's JK Lone Hospital reported a high incidence of infant deaths in December 2019. "Often, a newborn is weak because of the mother's poor health, which in turn is due to the lack of adequate medical advice during pregnancy," says Birla, whose wife Amita, a gynaecologist, helped him understand that maternal and infant mortality in India are not always related to poor health infrastructure or doctors' negligence.
This story is from the January 2023 edition of Reader's Digest India.
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This story is from the January 2023 edition of Reader's Digest India.
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