India, Feb. 24 -- In a move to reduce infant deaths caused by congenital anomalies, the Maharashtra government has made it mandatory for high-risk pregnant women to undergo an anomaly scan between 18 and 20 weeks of pregnancy. The Public Health department issued the general resolution (GR) on February 17. The move will help to identify congenital abnormalities in fetuses at an early stage, allowing for appropriate treatment for a better outcome, health officials said on Monday.

According to the officials, women in the 'high-risk' category include very young mothers, mothers whose previous child was born with a congenital anomaly, suffered recurrent pregnancy losses and stillbirth with a suspected anomaly, have diabetes mellitus (pre-gest...