For nurses working in rural Nepal, every birth delivery is a challenge working hard to prevent risks for both the mother and their babies. A beneficiary of OHW’s Simulation Based Mentorship Program, Nurse Rita Ale Magar is one of those nurses who shares her story of how she saved a young mother and her baby, who were both in a near-death situation.

In 1998 I was invited to Lhasa, Tibet to help start a Plastic Surgery Project with Interplast to repair birth defects (cleft lips). On that trip I met the Director of the Lhasa Municipal Hospital Dr. Lu Xing, I shared with him that my specialty was Maternal and Child Health and that I was working at the University of Utah Medical School. He asked me if I could bring high-risk doctors to help the OBGYN department.

Creating quality maternity care is not just about constructing a new birthing center and providing quality equipment. It is also about promoting ownership among local stakeholders to create a sustainable MNH system that can help nurses to save lives.

Nagina Kumari U. was barely 18 when she gave birth to her first baby at Urampokhara Health Post in Bihadi Gaunpalika. She recalls how inconvenient it was to deliver her baby here. It had a birthing facility but hardly qualified as one. The conditions were so deplorable that most mothers from this rural municipality ward refused to visit this birthing center. 

“Today, there has been a big transformation with help from One Heart Worldwide, which has provided a lot of guidance on how to make improvements,” says 21-year-old Nagina, who has now joined the birthing center as the nurse. 

In times of crisis, we are forced to be innovative for survival.

COVID-19 created huge challenges for health service providers but also created opportunities for innovation. As soon as the first wave of COVID-19 started, the risks for maternal and neonatal healthcare service providers increased.

Government rural nurses always walk extra miles to help keep mothers and their babies safe in their communities. Their stories, often unheard in mainstream media, are inspiration of how Nepali nurses work hard to help local community in safe motherhood practices. Skilled Birth Attendant Rita Dhungana is one of government nurses who received support from OHW for developing her skills through our Simulation-based Mentorship Program (SBMP) and, we are proud to share her story.

In rural areas of Nepal, local communities face many challenges to get access to quality maternity services. These are also the areas where local government health offices are faced with limited financial resources to develop local health capacity, buy equipment, renovate and build birthing centers. This is where OHW’s partnership model has helped to build local capacity - through cost-sharing, knowledge-building, management and entrepreneurial skill development.