By Gerda Pohl | Medical Coordinator
Bipana Gurung (24) is one of several women whom PHASE health workers helped to deliver their babies in the last few months:
Bipana was pregnant for the first time. PHASE health workers had been coming to her village, teaching all mothers about the importance of having antenatal care and skilled help during childbirth, so she went to the health post in Sridibas as soon as she realized her periods were not coming anymore.
She attended the health centre regularly, had her tetanus vaccinations (to prevent Tetanus of the newborn, still a problem in rural areas) and was taking iron tablets to prevent anemia (70% of pregnant women in Nepal are anemic).
She finally went into labour on the 8th of August, 10 days after her due date. Because they lived a distance from the health post, she and her husband actually walked there after it was clear that it wasn’t a false alarm – they arrived at the health post in the afternoon, 7 hours after her first few contractions.
Bipana’s labour wasn’t straightforward: Her contractions kept disappearing and there was little progress overnight and even during the next morning.
The health workers (PHASE health assistant Srijana Pant and the government employed Maternal and Child Health Worker Bishnu Gurung) did their best to support her and made sure with regular monitoring that the baby was OK. It is not really safe to give drugs to speed up labour in such an isolated place, and as there was no serious risk to the mother, the family didn’t want to contemplate the idea of a referral to hospital, which would have involved carrying the expectant mum for 3 days down the valley!
Fortunately, Bipana’s contractions finally picked up during the next afternoon, and a healthy baby boy was finally born at 10.30 pm – about 36 hours after labour first started! Both mum and baby were fine. Bipana is still continuing with iron supplements and has had several postnatal checkups to ensure everything continued to go well.
With your help, PHASE can continue to support more women like Bipana to have professional support during childbirth – this can make a huge difference or them and their babies’ health in such isolated conditions. Thank you very much for your ongoing support!
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By Gerda Pohl | Medical Coordinator
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