Pregnancy complications claim hundreds of lives annually

A few weeks ago, a 20-year-old woman from ward 3 of Tila Rural Municipality of Jumla district succumbed to maternity-related complications. The woman, who had given birth to her baby at the Karnali Academy of Health Sciences, was airlifted to the Provincial Hospital in Surkhet after she suffered from high blood pressure. Doctors later found that she was suffering from renal and liver failure at the time she was admitted to the hospital. She died of complications. Including this case, 69 other women from 56 districts died of maternity-related complications in the first eight months of the fiscal year, according to the data provided by the Family Welfare Division under the Department of Health Services. Officials admit that the actual number of maternal deaths could be higher than government data show, as the maternal and perinatal death surveillance programme is implemented in just 56 of the country’s 77 districts. “We are working to expand maternal and perinatal death surveillance in an additional four districts in the ongoing fiscal year,” said Nisha Joshi, a public health officer at the division. “Not all maternal deaths are reported even from districts where the maternal and perinatal death surveillance programme has been implemented.” Maternal health experts say pregnancy is not a disease, yet hundreds of women in the country die each year due to complications. Most complications during or after childbirth are avoidable through timely interventions, according to the