RUKUM: The Aathbiskot Municipality in the district has come up with a noble idea to minimise death rate among mothers and infants, and childbirth complications, now it is to provide free ambulance service for taking a pregnant woman to a hospital for delivery.

For the purpose, the process has been initiated to purchase two ambulances, said the Municipality Mayor Gorakh Bahadur KC. "The service was in urgent need as many pregnant women of the district fail to make it to health institutions for delivery for want of transportation."

Health institutions are not accessible easily in many rural parts of the district; as a result, expectant mothers in many cases are forced to give birth at home risking their lives.

“Many women were found suffering from uterine prolapse and pelvic/ lower abdominal pain during a health camp organised earlier in the area by the Municipality,” KC said.

“So the free ambulance service will also help women get to a hospital on time for treatment of various diseases,” he added.

Likewise, the Municipality has started a campaign to provide vegetable seeds to the pregnant women who visit health institutions for vaccination. The drive aims to improve health of pregnant women and their infants and to get full immunization coverage in the Municipality.

Meanwhile, the Municipality also distributes rice, oil, spices and vegetable seeds worth Rs 2,000 to each mother who visits a town health unit established by the Municipality for birth registration within 35 days of birth.

The Municipality has set up town health units at 14 different places in the area for providing health service to pregnant women and for birth registration.