ABSTRACT

In this chapter, the author addresses the privileging of others before mothers by examining the adequacy of biomedical health indicators in assessing maternal health. She describes the health of pregnant women in Chanda Nagar using standards recommended and used internationally by the World Health Organization and those developed for women in India by the Indian Council of Medical Research. The author discusses issues facing women with higher BMT assessments. She calculates body mass index (BMI) for pregnant women over the course of the three trimesters. For instance, there is some evidence that women with high BMIs gained less weight during the first and second trimesters but gained weight faster during the third trimester than women with low BMIs. However, there are two problems with numerical indicators of health. First, the health indicators are still in development, and health assessment depends on which indicators are used. Second, numerical health assessments do not reflect community members' perceptions of susceptibility to health calamities.