Partnership for Maternal and Neonatal Health: Nepal continues to face unacceptably high levels of maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity, particularly in rural areas. Most maternal and newborn deaths are preventable, and HealthRight International is addressing this challenge through the four-year Partnership for Maternal and Neonatal Health (PMNH) project in Nepal’s Arghakhanchi and Kapilvastu districts.
The PMNH seeks to contribute to the reduction of newborn and maternal morbidity and mortality by achieving the following objectives:
· Increase awareness of, demand for, and access to community-based neonatal care services through rollout of the Community-Based Newborn Care Package (CB-NCP), delivered by female community health volunteers (FCHVs) and endorsed by the national government as a way to bring essential services to the home.
· Increase the availability of high-quality facility-based maternal and newborn care (MNC) services in the project area.
· Strengthen linkages between communities and facilities to increase awareness of, demand for, and utilization of MNC services at both levels.
HealthRight’s work has strengthened the health system’s ability to care for the expected 14,000 pregnancies/deliveries that will occur in both districts in 2013. Additionally, HealthRight’s PMNH activities will provide essential maternal and newborn care in over 7,000 home deliveries that will have an FCHV presence in Arghakhanchi and Kapilvastu district. In addition to saving lives, HealthRight activities will continue to build sustainable capacity among health workers and community members, generate and disseminate new evidence for global maternal and newborn health programs, and lay the groundwork for future programs addressing the needs of the most vulnerable groups in Nepal.
HealthRight works in partnership with the Government of Nepal’s Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), the Kapilvastu and Arghakhanchi District Health Offices (DHOs), the research agency MIRA, and community-based organizations.
