Dear Friends,

Sita Saves a Life

One day a woman from Chandanpur village came to call Sita. "Sita! Please hurry! She is going to die!" The woman was calling for Sita’s help because her daughter-in-law had just given birth and was suffering from a retained placenta. Sita rushed to the home where the delivery had taken place. Recalling what she had learned during the TBA Training, Sita quickly cleaned the mother’s breast and picked up the infant. "Suckling the newborn is one way to help the placenta come out," she explained. But the new baby was unable to suck. Sita was not discouraged. She went out and found a six-month old baby nearby and put him to the suffering mother’s breast. After some time Sita successfully delivered the placenta. Sita’s simple but life-saving skill helped this new mother to survive.

In many villages in Nepal women die as a result of this and other problems relating to childbirth. Nepal has a maternal mortality rate of 745 per 100,000, and is the only country in the world where the life expectancy of males exceeds that of females. Among the various activities conducted by the Community Development and Health Project (CDHP) of the United Mission to Nepal, the Safe Motherhood Program is one that directly addresses these issues. Over the past three decades, CDHP has served the poor in remote villages of Lalitpur District—and, more recently, in Makwanpur District—where hospitals are inaccessible to most people and government health posts are inadequate.

The lack of technical staff in the health posts has always been a problem. Even CDHP’s field-based staff cannot begin to handle every pregnancy and delivery in our project area. No, the key players in our Safe Motherhood Program are not located in health posts or hospitals. They are not doctors or midwives. Most of them have not even gone to school. They are local women who have been conducting deliveries in their communities, learning through experience and passing their skill to their daughters down through the generations. They are respected and trusted by the community people. These women are called Sudeni in Nepali, which means "traditional birth attendants" (TBA). Sita is one of them.

Having recognized their value and promise, CDHP has provided "Safe Motherhood Training" to TBAs over the years. Thus, through our program, the "T" in "TBA" has changed from "traditional" to "trained." Our training aims to prepare TBAs to conduct safe deliveries, to provide immediate care to newborn babies, and to refer high-risk cases to health posts or hospitals. TBAs also learn to provide counseling on family planning, immunization, nutrition, and sanitation. They practice conducting antenatal exams and postnatal check-ups for both mother and baby. As a result of the new knowledge and skills they gain, "trained" TBAs have saved the lives of many mothers in Nepal. TBAs should be respected and recognized as valuable leaders in the Safe Motherhood Initiative. Why? Because in many cases, the lives of Nepal’s women are literally in their hands. Just ask the mother saved by Sita.

Story by Vijaya Adhikari and Rukmani Rai

Edited by Jyoti Ellen Collins

Community Development & Health Project, United Mission to Nepal

God bless you!

Ellen "Jyoti" Collins

The 2000 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 146