Promoting maternal and child health after the earthquake

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Delivering babies and raising them without proper medical care is quite common in rural Nepal. While the situation is still dire there, significant improvement however, cannot be ignored, thanks to the Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHV).

Gayatri, 50, still remembers how when she started work as a FCHV a few years back in her community, Sundaradevi Village Development Committee (VDC) in Nuwakot, pregnant and nursing mothers were ignorant of the importance of regular medical checkups and vaccinations. With the persistent effort of many other FCHVs like her, gradual transformation has happened.

Due to a lack of proper hygiene, in the past, most children here suffered from water-borne disease like diarrhoea.

"Mothers did not want to vaccinate their children earlier. Mainly because they were not aware of its need. But we didn't stop telling and advising. Slowly, they began to pay attention to our advice," she says. "Many mothers started to bring their child for vaccination. Now, they say that it was all because of us," Gayatri says in a victorious tone.

Due to a lack of proper hygiene, in the past, most children here suffered from water-borne disease like diarrhoea. While pneumonia was also very common in children, uterine prolapse and menstrual disorders were common among women, Gayatri said. With the effort of FCHVs, in addition to the improved access to health services, some improvements were seen. But the slow improvement in health conditions was halted or even reversed after the earthquake.

"Hygiene was a major problem again. Most of the houses along with toilets were damaged. Families were forced to live in a congested temporary shelter and defecate openly," she says. "Instances of diarrhoea and diseases were more frequent."

Responding to women and children's need in emergency, World Vision established a Women’s, Adolescent and Young Child Space (WAYCS) at Sundaradevi. Many times Gayatri has also facilitated different WAYCS sessions on maternal and child health attended by women, pregnant, and nursing mothers.

"We conducted sessions on hygiene, immunisation, family planning, and nutrition," Gayatri shares. She believes that conducting such sessions in the aftermath of the earthquake was more fruitful since the hygiene conditions and health were grim.

When she was pregnant with her second child Sabitri, 23, a mother of two, regularly attended the WAYCS sessions. She said she had learnt many things about maternal and child health, hygiene, and nutrition, all of which was very helpful when her baby boy was delivered.

"I delivered my second child in the hospital, unlike the first one, after I learnt about the risks of unsafe delivery from the FCHVs, and WAYCS sessions. In the WAYCS sessions I also learnt about the need to maintain hygiene to protect my infant, especially after the disaster," says Sabitri.

"Now I pay more attention to cleanliness, balanced diet and child vaccination," she says.

In the districts where response work is underway, so far, around 13,000 individuals have been reached through the WAYCS sessions on maternal and child health.

World Vision also supported the capacity building of FCHVs through training sessions on first aid, disaster preparedness, infectious disease control, and a basic health package which includes maternal and child health, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), and counselling techniques.

Among the 46 trained FCHVs from 3 VDCs that World Vision works in Nuwakot, Gayatri is also one of the FCHVs who benefitted. "The session on first aid was more interesting and helpful for me. I learnt the techniques of putting on a bandage, preparing a stretcher, ways to treat burn injuries, snake bite, and much more," she says.