Use of Mother Child Protection Card in Medical College Setting: Our Experience

Background: The Mother Child Protection Card (MCP Card) is a user friendly, visual tool designed to provide concise, actionable guidance on specific tasks to the community health workers. Aims & Objectives: The present study intended to use MCP card for empowerment of parents. This can be a sustainable solution for holistic child development and safety in medical college. Methodology: This was a prospective cross-sectional study conducted in a tertiary care hospital. The study population comprised children between 0-2 years of age. An informed written consent was obtained from the mothers prior to inclusion in the study. Participants were selected based on predefined inclusion criteria and were administered a pre-validated semi structural proforma in vernacular language. Data collected in preformed data collection form was entered in Microsoft Excel and analyzed using IBM Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 26. Results: The Mother and Child Protection (MCP) Card was used for parental counselling and the most common form of affectionate interaction with babies was hugging or skin-to-skin contact (33.2%). This tool offers a valuable guidance and practical support. Conclusion: The study emphasizes that for MCP cards with structured training of frontline health workers and counselling sessions at key maternal-child contact points.