Kathmandu, March 15:

Lack of awareness and conventional practices adopted during child delivery are the major reasons behind the death of mothers and babies, a study report states.

The study themed ‘Key Informant Monitoring’ was conducted by Action Aid with support from the Safe Motherhood Network Federation (SMNF) in 16 remote VDCs of Dadeldhura, Dailekh, Parbat, Myagdi, Chitwan, Morang, Nawalparasi and Rupandhehi districts to find out why a mother dies every four hours during pregnancy, childbirth or post-pregnancy.

At a press meet held by the SMNF today, Bindu Gautam, social inclusion and voice promotion specialist, Action Aid, said the study showed pregnant women in the areas are not treated with care and are made to toil. They are not subjected to check-ups and are not given nutritious food.

According to the study, most of the surveyed people took three days of labour pain and bleeding for one or two days as not dangerous, though labour that lasts longer than 12 hours is very dangerous. Usually women are forced into sexual intercourse during the last days of pregnancy, which is likely to cause infection. Babies are still delivered in dark rooms and materials used are dirty.

“Still the risky ways of massaging the abdomen, drinking water mixed with railway tickets, hanging from rope, stuffing hair in mouth to induce vomiting to retain placenta are practised,” Gautam said, adding goat milk is fed to newborns for three days and babies are bathed within three hours, which is unsafe.

Even if doctors were available, women were reluctant to visit them because they were male. Unskilled birth attendants were found to have provided help in such cases. Many mothers were found to have lost lives because of this. SMNF president Arjoo Rana Deuba said 281 out of every 100,000 mothers die during pregnancy to post-delivery periods, which is very high. “Such deaths occur due to ignorance. They can be curbed by putting in place a proper mechanism.”