Encouraging hospital delivery in Nepal

	In Achham, new mothers hold their babies after delivering at Bayalpata Hospital.

Women in rural Nepal are not just being encouraged to seek neonatal health care, they are being rewarded for it.

The Government of Nepal recently invited Nyaya Health, a PIH-supported project in the rural district of Achham, to participate in its new Safe Motherhood Program. 

“This program provides a great incentive to encourage in-facility delivery in our region,” says Ranju Sharma, Bayalpata Hospital’s Director of Community Health. “Since initiating this program, we have seen an impressive increase in our delivery numbers; nonetheless, for a hospital serving over 250,000 people, we are still not seeing nearly as many as we would like.”

With less than one percent of the region’s women delivering their babies in health centers or hospitals, this program--initiated by the UK Department for International Development and the Nepali Ministry of Health and Population--financially reimburses expectant mothers who attend four antenatal care visits and deliver in a hospital with roughly $20USD. 

In a country where women are often confined to the home, and where the median family income is often less than $400USD, these incentives can have a very real impact for struggling families.

More importantly, the program helps save the lives of women and newborns.

Achham District suffers from one of the highest maternal mortality rates in South Asia with nearly one in one hundred deliveries resulting in the death of the mother. This program has already benefited the region’s women by reducing maternal and infant mortality rates. 

“By utilizing our [Nyaya’s] community health worker networks in the villages of our district, we are working on additional community awareness programs to further promote in-hospital deliveries and improve women’s healthcare situation here in Achham,” says Ms. Sharma.

Read Astha Ramaiya’s post about “Safe Motherhood”.

Learn more about Nyaya Health.

Established in 2005, Nyaya Health works with the Nepali Ministry of Health and Population to develop health care services in the impoverished western regions of the country. Working to advance the solidarity model of Partners In Health, Nyaya aims to scale-up not only medical services, but also services targeting other population-level interventions. 

Nyaya is one of PIH’s six supported projects, each dedicated to implementing the organization's philosophy on a global scale by working with local communities and governments to create change.