When I went to see Padma in our maternity ward, I couldn’t believe she had just delivered a baby boy a few days ago. She looked 60, but was only 35.
Perhaps all of the years of hard work, and the challenges of living in rural Nepal, had taken a toll on her body. Her lean body and the wrinkles on her face said it all:
Padma is married to her 61-year-old husband, who is a farmer. Together they have an 8-year-old son. Their family lives in a small village that’s a two hour drive from our hospital.
They have a hard time making ends meet; like many families in the hills of Nepal, they can only survive for a few months at a time from the crops on their small piece of land.
Our Community Health team met Padma during her first group antenatal care (ANC) visit when she was four months pregnant.
By working with and strengthening government clinics, our Community Health team organizes monthly ANC visits for pregnant mothers. Here, they receive group care, maternal and neonatal health education, and social support.
At Padma’s first ANC meeting, our team discovered she showed signs of mental illness, so we started monitoring her health closely. During the second ANC visit, we brought her to the hospital where she was diagnosed with a prolapsed uterus caused by her first pregnancy. As a result, our community health team continued following up with her regularly through group ANC meetings and visits at her home.
The Barriers to Care
Just a few days ago, our doctor Bishal received a call from a worker at a health clinic about Padma’s condition. She went into early labor and there was no midwife present at the clinic to take care of her — a stark reality, and problem our team is continuously working to solve.
Our hospital ambulance was already in use. All phone networks were down that day, and the last message we received was that someone was arranging for a jeep to send Padma to our hospital.
She did not show up that morning.
Dr. Bishal along with our nurse, Sonu, had no choice but to get in a jeep and drive straight to her house.
“The next few hours were very nerve-racking. We did not know what to expect,” recalls Dr. Bishal.
When they arrived at Padma’s house, she was bleeding and in great pain. She had been in labor for more than 20 hours. Dr. Bishal tried to hear a fetal heart rate through his stethoscope, but was unable to. Our team quickly carried her to the jeep and rushed her to the hospital.
Our medical team immediately went to work. They tried to check the fetal heart rate again, and luckily could hear it.
Padma was taken to the delivery room and in few hours delivered a baby boy.
This was a success story that could’ve easily been otherwise.
Regular monitoring of Padma’s pregnancy as a high-risk pregnancy and quick actions from our community health and clinical team led us to save both Padma and her newborn. Otherwise, she could have easily fallen through the cracks.
The story goes on, though.
“We overcame one hurdle, but there are many more ahead of us. The baby was born prematurely and is underweight. We need to figure out a way to help the baby gain weight,” said Sonu. “We are going to help them with family planning too. Padma’s health is not ideal for any more children.”
Our Community Health Team is working hard to make the path to delivery for all mothers safer.
“Even though the mortality rate under-five has dropped in our country in the last few years, infant mortality and neonatal mortality has not improved much,” said Dr. Bishal. “The next few months are very crucial for Padma and her baby.”
Through our durable healthcare model, we are able to improve the path to delivery because our healthcare does not end at the hospital. Patients receive the care they need, and closer to where they are, through our integrated healthcare system that includes hospital, clinics, and community health workers.
Our Community Health team now makes regular visits to Padma’s house to teach her about personal hygiene and breastfeeding. The baby will also be placed under a malnutrition category so we can monitor him more closely and for a longer period of time.
The road to delivering a baby in this part of Nepal is quite different
from most places around the world.
But our team works day in and day out to provide fully, not partially for our patients like Padma and her child. In fact, this month we’ve had the highest number of safe births to date.
A large part of this is due to our crowdfunding partnership with Kangu, who supports our maternal health program, which includes prenatal care, health education, emergency services, safe deliveries, and postpartum care for mothers.
With Kangu — and you — we can continue to solve for the patient.
Meet one of our moms who needs funding today.
