TFM 2026 Awards: Care, courage & clinical excellence take centre stage
Judging excellence in maternal healthcare is not like judging most things. The numbers, whether around delivery volumes, success rates, bed counts, etc., are the starting point, far from the verdict. When the jury members for the Times Future of Maternity Awards 2026 convened for final evaluation of nominees across 13 categories, the tougher questions were around what the data and information shared by nominees concealed, for instance, whether an IVF couple was counselled together, whether a woman in preterm labour was spoken to with respect, whether a hospital that recorded zero maternal deaths also initiated breastfeeding within the first hour, and more.
Prof. (Dr) Dinesh Kumar Yadav, Professor and Head of Paediatrics at ABVIMS & Dr RML Hospital, underscored maternity care as a long-term investment for the country.
"It is not the safety of the birth process, it's not the skilled manpower being present over there, but the eventual outcome that you have a healthy child, which could grow up to be a good resource," he said.
With around 25 million annual births in India, Dr Yadav said that the scope of evaluation should extend to adolescent health, nutrition, and immunisation, which are the foundations laid long before a woman becomes pregnant.
For hospitals, Dr. Madhu Goel, Director of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Fortis La Femme, analysed a detailed checklist of NICU, blood bank, OT and LDR status, infection protocols, emergency response, rapid response teams, imaging facilities, fetal medicine specialists, and more. However, she kept returning to something the checklist couldn’t capture – women are not percentage.
"When an individual patient comes to you, they want everything to be perfect."
"The single most important thing is communication."
Prof. (Dr.) Manju Puri, Senior Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at SGT University, said she evaluated nominees through the lens of indicators while drawing a clear distinction between counting and measuring. For instance, she said, a hemoglobin test is a process indicator, but whether the woman arrived at childbirth without anemia is a meaningful one.
"It is not the numbers. Numbers are there, big numbers are there in the public sector. So it is the outcome indicators which we look at."
Dr Puri assessed nominees on maternal mortality rates, complication rates, perinatal outcomes, partogram maintenance, facility readiness and response times, and whether respectful care was provided.
Care, she pointed out, costs nothing while quality improvement, in her framework, doesn't require large budgets or infrastructure overhauls.
“It requires identifying what's broken, fixing the lowest-hanging problems first, and sustaining the improvement rather than treating it as a one-time exercise.”
In fertility and reproductive care, Prof. (Dr) Surveen Ghumman Sindhu, Senior Director and Head of IVF and Reproductive Medicine at MAX Group of Hospitals, evaluated to what extent the centres provided care beyond clinical outcomes.
“It is not just the woman who is grieving, it is the man who is grieving also. He is in depression. So how many of us actually look at the husband and say, okay, I need to talk to you about things also."
Dr Sindhu was equally pointed about language, for instance, telling a patient her IVF cycle failed lands differently from telling her it didn't work this time.
"Failed means she failed."
Good fertility care, in her assessment, starts three to six months before treatment begins with preconception counselling, anemia correction, thyroid checks, and runs through to how a negative result is communicated.
The winners across the 13 categories of the Times Future of Maternity Awards 2026 were those who came closest to meeting this standard. In other words, it was not just about infrastructure and outcomes, but the quality of care a patient experiences when things go as planned, and the quality of communication she receives when they don't.
Here is the complete list of winners across Gold, Silver & Bronze categories:
margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l24 level1 lfo1; tab-stops:list .5in1.Comprehensive Maternity Hospital of the Year (Regional)
Prof. (Dr) Dinesh Kumar Yadav, Professor and Head of Paediatrics at ABVIMS & Dr RML Hospital, underscored maternity care as a long-term investment for the country.
"It is not the safety of the birth process, it's not the skilled manpower being present over there, but the eventual outcome that you have a healthy child, which could grow up to be a good resource," he said.
With around 25 million annual births in India, Dr Yadav said that the scope of evaluation should extend to adolescent health, nutrition, and immunisation, which are the foundations laid long before a woman becomes pregnant.
For hospitals, Dr. Madhu Goel, Director of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Fortis La Femme, analysed a detailed checklist of NICU, blood bank, OT and LDR status, infection protocols, emergency response, rapid response teams, imaging facilities, fetal medicine specialists, and more. However, she kept returning to something the checklist couldn’t capture – women are not percentage.
"When an individual patient comes to you, they want everything to be perfect."
"The single most important thing is communication."
Prof. (Dr.) Manju Puri, Senior Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at SGT University, said she evaluated nominees through the lens of indicators while drawing a clear distinction between counting and measuring. For instance, she said, a hemoglobin test is a process indicator, but whether the woman arrived at childbirth without anemia is a meaningful one.
"It is not the numbers. Numbers are there, big numbers are there in the public sector. So it is the outcome indicators which we look at."
Dr Puri assessed nominees on maternal mortality rates, complication rates, perinatal outcomes, partogram maintenance, facility readiness and response times, and whether respectful care was provided.
Care, she pointed out, costs nothing while quality improvement, in her framework, doesn't require large budgets or infrastructure overhauls.
“It requires identifying what's broken, fixing the lowest-hanging problems first, and sustaining the improvement rather than treating it as a one-time exercise.”
In fertility and reproductive care, Prof. (Dr) Surveen Ghumman Sindhu, Senior Director and Head of IVF and Reproductive Medicine at MAX Group of Hospitals, evaluated to what extent the centres provided care beyond clinical outcomes.
“It is not just the woman who is grieving, it is the man who is grieving also. He is in depression. So how many of us actually look at the husband and say, okay, I need to talk to you about things also."
Dr Sindhu was equally pointed about language, for instance, telling a patient her IVF cycle failed lands differently from telling her it didn't work this time.
"Failed means she failed."
Good fertility care, in her assessment, starts three to six months before treatment begins with preconception counselling, anemia correction, thyroid checks, and runs through to how a negative result is communicated.
The winners across the 13 categories of the Times Future of Maternity Awards 2026 were those who came closest to meeting this standard. In other words, it was not just about infrastructure and outcomes, but the quality of care a patient experiences when things go as planned, and the quality of communication she receives when they don't.
Here is the complete list of winners across Gold, Silver & Bronze categories:
margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l24 level1 lfo1; tab-stops:list .5in1.Comprehensive Maternity Hospital of the Year (Regional)
- Sagar Chandramma Hospitals – Silver
- Cocoon Hospital – Bronze
- Kamalnayan Bajaj Hospital – Bronze
- Bhagirathi Neotia Woman & Child Care Centre, Kolkata – Bronze
- Saloni Arora, Nutritionist and Founder, Femly – Gold
- Ajanta Hospital and IVF Centre, Lucknow – Gold
- Sagar Chandramma Hospitals and Fertility Centre – Gold
- ASTER MEDCITY, Kochi – Silver
- MSD For Mothers – Bronze
- R for Rabbit – Gold
- Himalaya Wellness Company – Gold
- Neotia Bhagirathi Woman and Child Care Centre, Newtown, Kolkata – Silver
- Sagar Chandramma Hospitals and Fertility Centre – Silver
- Ankura Hospitals – Gold
- MSD for Mothers – Gold
- Dr. Vandana Bansal, Surya Hospital – Gold
- Redcliffe Labs – Gold
- Dr. Jayesh Amin – Bronze
- Dr. Gita Khanna, Ajanta Hospital and IVF Centre, Lucknow – Bronze
- Dr. V. Harshini, Raaya Hospital – Silver
- Dr. Sonal Jain Jayaswal – Bronze
- Growgether (Rimashi Lifestyle Pvt. Ltd.) – Gold
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