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Ante-natal pills for 15 districts
KATHMANDU, AUG 03 -
The government will expand the distribution of Matree Surachhya Chakki (tablets to stop bleeding after child delivery) to women in their eight months of pregnancy to 15 districts where there is little access to health facilities, said an official at Ministry of Health and Population (MoPH).
So far, the tablets are being distributed in six districts — Dang, Sindhuli, Jumla, Doti, Bajhang and Mugu — after the programme yielded positive response in the pilot scheme in Banke district in 2008. The districts where the tablets will be distributed have not been listed yet.
“A large number of women in Nepal still die of excessive bleeding during childbirth as they do not avail of healthcare facilities during pregnancy and delivery,” said Dr. Silu Aryal, Senior Consultant Obstetrician and Gynecologist at the Family Health Division. “Women should take this tablet immediately after delivery. This would at least prevent them from dying due to excessive bleeding, even if they do not visit a hospital.”
She also said that the tablet was not a licence for women to deliver children at home. Women health volunteers will visit every month and counsel pregnant women as to which hospital to go to for safe delivery, what sort of diet to take during pregnancy, among others, and provide this tablet when the women reach eight months of gestation, in case they give birth on way to hospital or at home.
According to Dr. Aryal, a pregnant woman should visit a health facility at least four times - namely, during the fourth, sixth, eighth and ninth month, respectively.
However, according to a report of the MoHP, of the estimated 800,000 pregnant women across the country each year, only 50 percent of them visit health facilities in the fourth month. Further, only 29.4 percent of pregnant women complete the full course of the ante-natal scheme. As a result, at least 2,000 women die every year from pregnancy complications, and every year at least 30,000 infants die before they get to be one month old.
According to the Family Health Division, approximately 75 percent of the deliveries take place at home.
The Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Study (2008-09) undertaken by the Family Health Division of the Department of Health Services shows that maternal mortality and morbidity ratio had come down from 539 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1998 to 281 in 2006 and 229 in 2009. Nepal has to reduce the maternal mortality and morbidity rate to 134 by 2015 to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG).
Posted on: 2010-08-04 07:27
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