Nepal

A woman sat on the ground in the courtyard of a village house. Surrounded by other women, she burst into tears as she learned about Matri Surakchya Chakki (misoprostol), from the young community change agent speaking with them about safer childbirth that day. She recalled her neighbor dying in a cowshed recently due to excessive bleeding after giving birth to her child. She said that had these misoprostol tablets been available at that time, her neighbor’s life would have been saved.

No woman should die in childbirth from conditions effectively treated in the developed world. In this mountainous country, the vast majority of women deliver at home without a skilled health provider. To meet the need of these laboring mothers, VSI worked with partners to increase access to misoprostol for prevention of postpartum hemorrhage in the hardest to reach villages.

After the successful registration of misoprostol for postpartum hemorrhage in 2008, VSI collaborated with local organizations to train community change agents who visit women’s groups and educate them on the use of Matri Surakchya Chakki, or mothers’ safety pills, to reduce bleeding after childbirth.

At the close of our project in 2010, with our partners we had trained over 100 pharmacists, like those in the Sangini Network (pictured above) to distribute misoprostol to pregnant women.

Read our blog post about Nepal here>

By the Numbers

Estimated Total Population

27.5 M

Lifetime Risk of Maternal Death

1 woman in 80

Maternal Mortality Ratio

380 per 100,000 live-births

Total Fertility Rate

3.0

Births Attended by Skilled Health Provider

19%

Unmet Need for Family Planning

24%

Source: PRB, 2011 and WHO, 2010