Mag

Mag, a young girl living in the village of Kashiguan in Gorkha, had her first interaction with a health post worker at the age of 17. Mag did not attend school whilst growing up, instead she maintained her family household and supported agricultural production. When she became pregnant at 17, she did not understand the value in having regular health check-ups to monitor her own or her child’s health. Her first interaction with a community health worker came from a direct healthcare visit after a nurse heard of her pregnancy. The community health worker recommended she altered her daily routines to aid the process of pregnancy, and encouraged Mag to visit the community health post for further check-ups. Although Mag began to take the recommended iron tablets and de-worming tablets, she failed to ever visit the health post throughout the remainder of her pregnancy. During her delivery month, Mag began to experience severe labour pains. Mag still did not visit the health post, and hid the pain away from her husband and father-in law. When the pain escalated, Mag called her mother and she came over to help her cope with the pains. Luckily, on that same day PHASE health workers happened to be visiting the Kashiguan village. They knew Mag was pregnant and came over to check up on her during her due month. During this visit, the PHASE health workers recognised that Mag was ready to give birth and that she would be giving birth to twins. Importantly they urged Mag to go to a well equipped hospital immediately, as they would be able to safely support her birth. In order to do this, Mag’s family and many others in her village helped her get to the bus station, which was a six hours walk away. Mag made it to a hospital in the city of Chitwan, and received treatment for her pregnancy. Sadly, one of her babies passed away during the labour process but one was saved by the medical staff at the hospital. Mag reflected on her pregnancy experience:

“If there has not been a PHASE Nepal sister in the village at the time I gave birth then myself and both my daughters may have died. If I had followed their earlier advice then both of my babies might be alive. I want to give my heartfelt thanks to PHASE Nepal and the staff who are working in remote rural areas providing health services. From now on I will visit the health institution for check-ups during pregnancy as well as for delivery. I will also make other women like me aware of the importance of health care in pregnancy by telling them my own story.”

Mag’s story provides insight into the importance of healthcare check ups during pregnancy, that many women across the villages of Gorkha are simply unaware of or unable to access without making a difficult journey. PHASE health workers both spread the awareness of the importance of healthcare check-ups and travel to remote and isolated villages to provide, the otherwise missed, essential healthcare checks-up for many women during pregnancy.