Sharmila Sunar, a 23-year-old woman from Sallekhola in ward 6 of Triveni Rural Municipality, recalls travelling to the district hospital in Sharada Municipality, a walk of around an hour and a half from Sallekhola, for her routine checkup during her first pregnancy three years ago.

“I had to rent a vehicle for Rs2,000 to go to the hospital for a checkup,” said Sunar. “Back then I wished I didn’t have to travel during pregnancy, but we had no choice.”

Sunar is currently expecting her second child and is in her second trimester. She is relieved that she doesn’t have to go to the hospital this time around since the local health post started video X-ray services for pregnant women.

All 10 local units of Salyan started providing video X-ray services free of cost through the local health facilities from this fiscal year onwards for the benefit of rural women.

Sunar visited the Luham Health Post, close to her home, for a health checkup where the health workers conducted a thorough medical checkup including a video X-ray.

“The start of the video X-ray services at the local health post is a boon for us,” said Sunar. “It costs a lot of money and time to go to the district hospital, but what was more troublesome for me was waiting in line at the hospital. I had to spend the night in the district headquarters after getting tests done at the hospital because an entire day would be wasted waiting in line. Returning home the same day was too tiring.”

Bimala Oli, a 25-year-old woman resident of Kotmoula in ward 7 of Bagchaur Municipality, is four months pregnant with her second baby. Like Sunar, she too has heaved a sigh of relief since the local health post in her municipality started providing video X-ray services.

“I used to pay Rs2,500-Rs3,000 to rent a vehicle to go to the district hospital. I would fall sick after a long day of travel and waiting in line. For some people, spending a couple of thousands on one trip might not be a big deal, but for people like us it is a huge amount,” said Oli.
“There is no limit to my happiness now that the local unit has made provisions for women like us to get video X-ray services in the village itself.”

Earlier, pregnant women had to rely on health camps conducted in the villages to get a complete health checkup. The health camp teams would not be able to reach far-flung villages in the district leaving a majority of rural women without the benefits of a health checkup.

According to Prabhat Kumar Shrestha, health coordinator of Triveni Rural Municipality, around 300 women in the rural municipality give birth every year, and more than half of the women miss routine check-ups due to financial constraints and travel hassles, among other things.

“Pregnant women skipping routine prenatal check-ups may face risks of miscarriage, premature birth, maternal deaths, and even infant deaths,” said Shrestha. “Because there was no video X-ray machine in the health facilities for the health workers to conduct a thorough checkup, pregnant women had no choice but to travel to the district hospital whether they could afford it or not.”

The rural municipality plans to extend the video X-ray services to all health posts soon, said Shrestha.

Bharat Kumar Oli, chief administrative officer of Kapurkot Rural Municipality, said that all the local units in the district used to conduct mobile health camps once a year for pregnant women, but the health camps have a limited reach. “So many pregnant women would miss prenatal checkups leading to complications during birth,” said Oli. “Now that the local health posts are equipped to conduct proper medical checkups, every pregnant woman has access to safe maternity care.”